Archangel High Deux
by Asuka Mayu
Summary: [AU] [AxC etc] [ON-GOING] Sequel to Archangel High. Cagalli is now with Miguel, though deep inside she is still hoping for Athrun and it's up to him to realize it. At the same time, their friends are also tested in their own relationships. Would their loves and friendship survive?
1. Chapitre I : The Start

**Hello! Mayu desu. LOL. So…this is it; the continuation for my previous multi-chaptered fic, Archangel High. There's nothing much for this chapter, though. Just an overview to what had happened after the last chapter. Nevertheless, I hope to get some reviews on how the story should continue afterwards. Please enjoy. ^^**

**-edited-**

**RECAPS ON ARCHANGEL HIGH **_(to help new readers, if there's any, so that they don't have to read through 28 chapters of a mess that that I wrote back when I was 12 lol)_

**Cagalli moved to Archangel High as a new student to join her brother Kira. She used to be Cagalli Yula Attha from ORB but in Heliopolis, she'll be staying with Kira and their birth mother, Via Hibiki.**

**Athrun pissed her off on her first day but due to some circumstances, they made a deal that makes them a fake couple for three months. Thanks to that, Cagalli was bullied harshly by Athrun's fangirls. Plus, Cagalli was already traumatized by a bully incident back when she was little so the experience upsets her. Athrun, due to his own ego, helped so little so Cagalli found someone else to fawn upon, that is Miguel. Something and another happened, and Athrun ended up ending the deal and Cagalli retaliated by dating Miguel. **

**Kira and Lacus are dating. Kira used to date Fllay an Lacus used to be engaged with Athrun. Athrun broke the engagement when he found out Kira and Lacus had fallen in love with each other.**

**Yzak and Shiho are sort of dating. They keep themselves to each other and both of them are not the most open people around so no one really knows what's happening between them.**

**Miriallia and Dearka are in a trial period. Dearka used to have a lifelong crush on Miriallia and Miriallia used to date and briefly engaged with Tolle before losing him in a tragic accident.**

**Meyrin is most likely the most prominent fangirl of Athrun after Meer has been taken care in the previous story.**

**Athrun's family is a mess. His father is never home and he found him in a hospital with his young and sultry secretary.**

**Actually there are so many more plot (a.k.a. pairings) in the original story but I know now I cannot just do all of them lol So these are the ones that I'd go along with for this sequel.**

**-edited- 7/22/13- **

**Chapitre I - The Start**

"Cagalli, breakfast?"

"No time, mum; Miguel is waiting already. I'm leaving, love you!" Cagalli kissed her mother on cheek before dashing towards the door, dragging her school bag.

Kira shook his head at his sister's antics, a smile played on his lips. He finished his coffee and looked at the time. He should be going now or his girlfriend would be waiting. Wiping his coffee-stained lips on the napkin, he pushed back the chair and grabbed his school bag.

"Mum, I'm going now. Love you!"

Kira caught up with Miguel and Cagalli and later they were joined by Kira's girlfriend, Lacus and their friend, Athrun.

Things got unbelievably normal after the end of Cagalli and Athrun's deal. Cagalli was going steady with Miguel and spent most of her leisure time with Miguel and his friends while Athrun had officially appointed as a member of the student council and was very busy with it. They talked and treated each other very normally, like friends; like the deal had never happened.

The others had given up on questioning them what had actually happened. They indeed looked so happy at the beginning of the deal, and it was so obvious that both of them loved each other. But everything changed after a while and the next thing they knew, the deal was off.

They were all surprised, though, when Cagalli announced that she was going out with Miguel just the next day after Athrun told them he wanted to end the deal earlier. Everything was fuzzy, but the ones who knew about the deal could easily assumed that Cagalli had fell for Miguel during the deal and Athrun had caught a gist about it and decided to end the deal to make it easier for Cagalli. It would explain Athrun's weird behavior towards Cagalli right before the end of the deal.

Athrun's mob of fangirls rejoiced at the news, of course. Most of them began to treat Cagalli warmly. Miguel was popular among the girls, yes, but he did not own some crazy fangirls. There were some girls, however, who did not really like the fact that Cagalli was dating Miguel so soon after she broke up with Athrun. They were mostly the girls who were quite close to Miguel, who had hoped someday to be picked as Miguel's girlfriend.

But overall, the new couple was well welcomed by everyone. They were dubbed 'Basketball Couple' as both Cagalli and Miguel were excellent in basketball. They were teased often by the member of school basketball team but all of them were actually amazed by the cooperation they showed during games, either in real matches or just trainings. It boosted up their performance greatly. The only thing that ruined the team slightly was Athrun's sudden withdrawal from the team.

"Why so sudden, Zala?" Miguel had asked him, when Athrun approached him after a training.

Athrun sighed. "You know I'm a member of student council now. I don't have time to practice anymore."

Miguel frowned as he walked towards the bench beside the court. He sat down and motioned Athrun to do the same. The junior of the two obliged.

"This is not about me and Cagalli, right?"

"Well…" Athrun hesitated. He was telling the truth about him having no time anymore for practices, but it had something to do with the fact that Cagalli and Miguel were going out as well. "No, Captain. It… has nothing to do with that. I bet Cagalli has told you, right? It was the deal, what happened between us."

Nodding, Miguel heaved a sigh as he eyed Athrun with his amber eyes. "She did."

Athrun smiled bitterly. "So, there's nothing actually between us, you don't have to worry."

Miguel nodded again, looking slightly happier this time. "Anyway, Zala – a natural talent like you doesn't really need practices. We need in you in this team."

"Don't say that, Captain. I'm not that good," said Athrun humbly. "I've decided. I've told Mr Crueset, even. He said as long as you are okay with it…"

"I am not okay with this," Miguel replied, sounded like a captain through and through. "But if that's what you want, what can I say? It is a great loss for us, Zala."

Athrun got up and bowed slightly. "I'm sorry, Captain. It has been a pleasure, playing with you all this time."

Miguel bowed slightly in respond. "You, too."

Athrun began to gather his things to leave the indoor court; it was getting late already. He excused himself from Miguel and walked a few steps before stopping.

"Ayman-senpai?"

Miguel looked up from his deep slumber. "What is it?"

Athrun's back was still turned to Miguel as he spoke since he did not wish to face Miguel. "There has been nothing between me and Cagalli; nothing at all – but I hope you will take good care of her, senpai. She is still my best friend's sister, after all."

"That's what I intended to do, Zala, you don't have to worry."

* * *

"I told you already, I forgot my purse!" Cagalli flung her arms, her lips puty.

"That's your problem, I've tired of reminding you what to bring to school each day!" Kira said determinedly.

"Aren't you usually eating with your boyfriend? What happened now?" asked Yzak, raising an eyebrow at the blonde.

Cagalli rolled his eyes. "Miguel has to finish his assignment… What's wrong with me eating with you all, anyway?"

Lacus put a hand on Cagalli's shoulder, smiling serenely. "There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, we are very happy. Don't worry, Cagalli; I'll lend you my money, okay?"

"You are too kind, Lacus…" whined Kira.

Cagalli stuck out tongue towards her twin brother and hugged Lacus tightly. "I love you!"

The others just laughed at the fuss. They really enjoyed Cagalli's presence among them, as Lacus had said earlier. All of them joined the queue and soon be seated at their usual table. Everyone was there; Kira, Lacus, Cagalli, Miriallia, Dearka, Yzak and Shiho. The only that was not present was….

"Athrun is not eating with us again…" sighed Lacus, eyeing the empty seat beside Dearka..

"You know how busy he is with the council." Kira tried to reason.

Lacus was still wearing his worried face. "I wonder if he's eating properly…"

It was Yzak who replied this time. "He can take care of himself, that brat. You don't have to worry."

As the others discussed about Athrun's welfare, Cagalli pondered about the matter by herself. Sure, she had been seeing Athrun during classes and he seemed fine to her. Just a little bit thinner, now when she came to think about it. Perhaps Lacus was right; he probably skipped most of his meals due to all the workload.

"Hey, want to buy something for him? I can drop by at the council room on my way to Miguel's class later," she suggested suddenly.

Everyone stopped talking at once and looked at Cagalli as if she had sprouted horn. No one said anything for a while. When the silence was broken, it was Lacus who had spoken.

"Well, I think that's a great idea. I'll buy him his favourite salad bread; tell him it's from all of us, okay?"

**Sorry if there's any spelling or grammars mistakes. Till the next chapter. ^^**

**- Mayu**


	2. Chapitre II The Story Goes On

**First of all, I'm sorry that the previous chapter is short. Well, this chapter is shorter. I honestly have forgotten that 1k word is considered short here, it seems so long in Word. =_= Anyway, enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think afterward. ^^**

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* * *

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**Chapter 2 - The Story Goes On**

Cagalli strolled along the corridor of third-year classes, swinging the bread she was holding slightly. Several people greeted her as she passed by; since she had been dating Miguel, she had come to make friends with many third-year students.

Life had been good for Cagalli ever since the end of the deal. Of course sometimes she still felt upset that Athrun refused point-blank to listen to her reasons and decided on his own to end the dear earlier than they had promised but thanks to that, she now could enjoy normal and happy high school life like she had always wanted. She had a loving boyfriend, cool friends to hang out with, and a great team to play her favourite sport in. Life could not be any better.

No, it could be better if her boyfriend was someone she really loved, but one couldn't have everything in life, anyway.

Cagalli sighed and came to halt as she reached the room of Student Council. She knocked twice and opened the door, poking her head inside. "Athrun?"

Athrun looked up from his work. His expression showed shock in seeing Cagalli but he quickly turned it into a smile. He stood up and stretched a little as he made way to Cagalli.

"What is it, Cagalli?" he asked.

The blonde handed him the bread, which he took questioningly. "From Lacus and the others. They were worried that you are not eating properly. Even I think you look thinner, Athrun."

Athrun smiled at the thoughtfulness. He knew Lacus was worried; she had been nagging him for weeks. It was so like Lacus to make sure he was eating no matter what. "Right. Thanks, Cagalli. You were eating with them?"

"Yeah, Miguel had something to do in his class," nodded Cagalli. She glanced at the time on Athrun's watch; there was 10 minutes more till the recess ended. "Well, actually I'm on my way to his class so see you in the class later."

"Okay. Thanks again, Cagalli." Athrun smiled for the last time before Cagalli turned and left the room.

* * *

"Did you eat the bread we gave you, Athrun?" Lacus asked as Athrun gathered up all his things to put in his bag. The bell had just rung, and Cagalli had dashed for her basketball practice so Lacus took her seat for a while.

Athrun smiled at his ex-fiancée. "I did, Lacus. You worry too much."

Lacus pouted and looked at Kira, who had come to her side at the moment, for support. Kira looked at his best friend concernedly; for a while he looked more matured than Athrun.

"She's right. You are getting thinner, Athrun," he said.

The blue-haired lad rolled his eyes; he knew Kira would side Lacus. It was hard to find as devoted as Kira to Lacus, and that was one of the reason he did not hesitate to let him have Lacus on the first place. But in this case now, considering how caring both of them could be, it annoyed him a little bit.

"Okay, fine," Athrun surrendered. "I'll make sure I'm eating properly. You don't have to send food to the room again, though. I'll bring lunch from home or something."

Lacus and Kira looked at each other.

"It was Cagalli's idea, you know," explained Lacus. "I bought it, but she was the one suggesting it."

Athrun was startled at the bit of information. Cagalli did not mention it at all. He put a smile on his face, anyway, as he hung his bag over his shoulder. "Really? That's so kind of her. Anyway, I have to go now. See you tomorrow."

"Wait, Athrun," Kira stopped him. "We talked over recess and planned to go out together this weekend. Lacus, Milly, Dearka, Cagalli and I are coming. Yzak and Shiho haven't decided yet. Cagalli said she would try asking Miguel if he could come. Can you make it? It has been a long time since we all go out together, you know."

Athrun thought for a while. To be honest, he did not feel like going if Cagalli would be bringing Miguel, but he would like to spend time with the others; he had not done so since he joined the student council. Supposed he could just act like normal if Miguel was really coming along; not that he had not been able to do that all this time, right?

"Sure. Tell me the details later, okay?"

* * *

"Hey, Hahnenfuss…hey, slow down a bit, what are you rushing for?"

Shiho slowed down her pace a little so she now walked along her boyfriend, unlike just now. There was no smile on her face; in fact, there rarely was this lately.

Yzak frowned. Usually Shiho would talk about a lot of things on their way home but recently she had been very quiet. He normally would complain how noisy she was, but he did not like it when she did not say anything like this; he did not like it at all. He thought she would probably talk to him if she had problems as she always did that, and he never need to ask – he was too proud to do that, Shiho should know that.

"Hey…about their plan this weekend, you want to go?" he asked, remembering about the matter.

"Do you?" Shiho asked back without even turning to the lad beside him.

This enraged Yzak a little; what with Shiho talking without looking at him and asking him back the thing he asked to her. But perhaps he could ignore it for once now.

"If you want to go, then we'll go. There's no way I am going with them alone," he answered curtly.

Shiho took her time answering. Yzak was already on his verge of patience when she finally nodded.

"I want to go."

"Then, I'll pick you up on the day," decided Yzak.

No word was exchanged between them anymore after that. The silence was killing Yzak but his ego was too high to let him say anything to enlighten the mood. Just when they reached Shiho's home, she muttered her usual 'thanks for sending me home, see you tomorrow' and kissed Yzak lightly before disappearing into her house, leaving Yzak fist-clenched.

* * *

**Even I don't like the length; I should have combined it with the previous chapter. " All the same, please do review and thanks for those reviewing the previous one, too. ^^ The next chapter is in making but it won't be coming out any sooner than next month, I think. Sorry for that. =)**

**-Mayu**


	3. Chapitre III The Date

**Hi, Mayu's here! It's August already, sorry~ Thanks for the reviews on previous chapters and enjoy this one!**

* * *

**Chapitre 3 - The Date**

"What about…this?"

Athrun palmed his forehead as Lacus pulled yet another set of outfits from her walk-in wardrobe. When Lacus called him 7 in the morning and said she needed his help "very, very, very" badly, he had imagined something like an accident. He should have thought it was something like this.

"Lacus… surely you didn't call me just for this?" he asked exasperatedly.

Lacus blinked innocently at her ex-fiancé. "I did, why?"

"It's 7…wait, 9 already? God, Lacus – just pick either one of them! We are meeting the other in an hour from now," Athrun explained through gritted teeth. No matter how mad he was, he could not even raise his voice to Lacus. It was Lacus, after all; he had known her since forever, though her innocence sometimes wind him up rather than amuse him.

The pink-haired girl looked at the piles of clothes thrown all over her queen-sized bed. "But I don't know which one to pick. You said everything looks fine. I don't want something that looks 'fine'. I want the best one. It's been a long time since I go out with KIra, you see."

Athrun sighed as he made way to the bed carefully as not to thread on any of the clothes. He picked up the clothes one by one to take a closer look of each of them. He had been sleepy when Lacus paraded the clothes in front of him since two hours ago, thus only gave her half-hearted responds like "That's good.", "That looks fine.", "It's pretty, Lacus," and so.

"You two went out on our last match with Dominion, didn't you?" asked Athrun lightly.

"That's almost two month ago, Athrun," Lacus reminded him, frowning. "It's already almost two months too since you and Cagalli broke up…"

"Since I end the deal, you mean," Athrun made a correction as he picked another outfit to observe. He did not like it when Lacus started to mention the matter; mainly because what he called her blind assumptions were mostly correct. "Don't even start again, Lacus."

Lacus pouted. "I like it if you're with Cagalli. You two really suit each other. I don't have anything against Miguel-senpai but…"

Athrun cut her off by shoving a set of outfits into her hands, which automatically silenced her. "Here, wear that. I'll go home and get dressed now. Make sure you are ready to go on 9.45, you know I hate waiting."

"Okay," said Lacus happily now she already had her clothes chosen for her. Now she only had to think how to style her hair. She spared a glance at the clock, it was already 9.15. Styling her hair should not take more than 30 minutes, should it? "Thanks, Athrun."

Sighing, Athrun nodded tiredly as he made way to the door. "Get ready now."

* * *

Kira banged the door for 6th time. "Cagalli, hurry up! They are waiting already!"

"Just a minute!" Came Cagalli's reply from behind the locked door. "Miguel is already here?"

"Miguel, Lacus and Athrun – all of them," answered Kira desperately. "Come on, Cagalli. It's not like you are wearing make-up whatsoever, right?"

The door was opened suddenly, revealing a blushing Cagalli. "Of course I'm not! What do you think? Do I look okay?"

Kira looked at his twin sister from up till down. Cagalli was wearing her favourite pair of jeans, coupled with red t-shirt that hugged her slim figure and the leather jacket Fllay had given her earlier. She didn't do anything to her hair or wear any other accessories except for her Howmea pendant that Kira assumed was given by Miguel; she had been wearing that since her outing with the senior.

"You're totally dressed up, Cagalli…" he said, amazed. "But surely you could have taken a shorter time to dress…"

"Geez…don't nag. Come on, we are late, right?" Cagalli cut him off, closing the door with a snap and went down the stairs. Kira followed her, sighing.

Lacus was the first one who noticed when the twins finally appeared from the house. She tugged Athrun who had been playing with Kira's rabbit Momiji. "Look, they're ready now."

Athrun looked up and his sight met Cagalli at once. He went speechless for a while but the lass did not seem to notice it but make way to approach her boyfriend at once.

"How do I look, Miguel?" she asked, turning herself slightly for Miguel to look at easier. "Kira said I should dress more like a girl but…"

Miguel smiled and pulled her closer, which silenced her rant. "This suits you more. You look good in anything, Missy."

Cagalli blushed at the compliment and turned away to hide the fact. Her eyes met Athrun's in the process, which made her cheeks grew hotter from some unknown reasons. She averted her gaze at once.

"Athrun…don't bring anyone? Meyrin, for instance?" she blurted out without thinking, and regretted it at once; why must she make a fool of herself every time Athrun was around?

Much to her surprise, Athrun smiled at the question. "I asked. But she had something else to do today. Next time, perhaps."

His answer shocked all of them; Athrun never mentioned anything about his relationship with Meyrin before, but his answer just now was implying that they were more than friends now. Lacus opened her mouth to ask but Kira nudged her to ignore the matter, at least for now. There was enough awkwardness already in the air.

* * *

Athrun drove them on his Benz, with Kira sitting on the front seat beside him. They had agreed to meet the others at Heliopolis Mall and spent the day there. They reached the mall on 10.30 and immediately got lectured by Yzak who claimed he had "waited for hours."

"We only arrived 10 minutes ago, you know," said Miriallia, irritated. Dearka suppressed a chuckle beside her but stopped right away at Yzak's glare.

"Leave it to Yzak to exaggerate," Athrun smiled knowingly.

The lot entered the mall. Their entrance attracted quite much attention from the crowd, good-looking as they all were. The one who attracted most attention was Athrun, of course. He was quite well-known among teenagers inside and outside Heliopolis. It seemed that he was aware of the attention he was getting, as he hastily pulled out a pair of shades from his jacket pocket and put it on.

Lacus also received as many stares as Athrun, what with her clipped long hair, which complemented nicely with the clothes Athrun had picked up for her; white sleeveless and white knee-length skirt with pink lace, completed by white stiletto. KIra was not at all oblivious to this and put an arm around Lacus protectively, pulling her closer. The other guys also had emitted "she's mine" aura around their girls; Dearka boldly warped his arm around Miriallia's waist, Yzak finally taking Shiho's hand into his and Miguel, who had held Cagalli's hand from the beginning, put his own cap on Cagalli.

"I don't want people staring at my Missy," he said, smiling, when Cagalli threw him a questioning look.

They walked around the mall from shop to shop; subtly avoiding Starbucks and a certain jewelry shop to respect Miriallia's feeling. She was still wearing the ring as a respect to Tolle's feeling, and though Dearka certainly did not like it, he never said anything; not to her face, anyway. She sometimes still cried for him, especially at night, when Tolle usually would call her just "to listen to her voice", as he reasoned. They would talk about nothing for hours. Dearka tried to do this as well, but despite her promise to give him a chance, she would still end the calls after 15 minutes at the most, saying that she was busy, or tired. It did not sit well for Dearka, but he was still hanging there.

"Hey, let's take a look at this shop?" suggested Cagalli suddenly, stopping at a sports shop. The others obliged, except for Athrun, who had just got a call.

"You all go in first. I'll come later," he said to them, flipping his cell phone open to answer the call.

He entered the shop after fifteen minutes, only to find the others gathered around the sulking Cagalli.

"What's wrong?" he asked Kira.

"She likes those shoes," Kira started to explain, his eyes rolled at a certain pair of Nike Air Max Hyped. "But the last of her size is already taken by those girls."

Athrun followed Kira's gaze towards two girls who looked like in their late teens. He turned to look at Cagalli, who was being coaxed by Miguel to choose other shoes that were available. It seemed that she was reluctant to do so; Cagalli could be painfully determined at times. But the sight of Miguel persuading Cagalli irritated him for some reason, and he resolved to think of ways he could get the shoes for her.

An idea struck him suddenly, drawing a smile on his lips. "Wait here."

"What he is going to do?" asked Lacus to Kira, who shrugged.

"Who knows?"

Athrun jogged a little to catch up with the girls, who were on their way to the counter. When he was finally close enough to them, he took off his shades and blocked their way.

"Excuse me, misses. I wonder if I could take a little bit of your time, just a little bit?" he said amiably, flashing his sweet smile.

The two girls blushed at the sudden greeting, and noticing it was from the famous Athrun Zala. They exchanged excited giggled before one of them at last responded to Athrun.

"A-Are you that…that Athrun Zala of Archangel High?"

Athrun nodded a little, smiling still. "I'm honoured that the misses know my name. I see that's a pair of basketball shoes you are going to buy. Could it possibly be that you two play basketball?"

The one holding the shoes blushed harder; Athrun thought she might explode if she did not stop soon. "Y-Yes, I p-play bas-basketball…"

"I thought so…" Athrun said, moving closer to the girl. "You know, I was watching the two of you since just now, ah, pardon my impertinence, misses…"

"No," the other girl said at once; who would not want to be watched by Athrun Zala, the Athrun Zala? "N-Not a matter…"

Athrun smiled again as he continued. "Well, if miss says so… While I was watching, I saw that you chose those shoes. Now, it's not like I am to look down at your choice or something like that, miss… but if I can make some suggestion based on my little experience…"

The girl with the shoes nodded immediately. "J-just suggest, pl-please."

It was clear that the girl would drop anything to accept his suggestion so he rolled his eyes towards the shoes on the display. "I personally think that Nike Shox BB Pro suits you better…"

If the girl could throw the shoes she was holding and grabbed the shoes Athrun had picked, she would have done so. But it seemed that she still minded her manners, as she politely called a shop assistant to return back the shoes and take the other shoes instead. When they had paid for the said shoes, the girls returned back to Athrun, both blushing red as one of them, the one buying the shoes, holding out a piece of paper to Athrun.

"M-My contact number, if-if you please," she stammered.

Athrun took it nicely, smiling. "My pleasure, miss. Have a good day."

When the girls finally exited the shop (after so many backward glances), Athrun sighed and put off his plastic smile. He walked towards the shop assistant who was on her way to return the Nike Air Max Hyped to the store.

"May I have that? It's the shoes, and the size I want," he said while flashing his splendid smile again.

The shop assistant was too charmed to do anything other than nodding timidly and brought the shoes to the counter for Athrun to pay for. Five minutes later, Athrun made way to the others, swinging the plastic containing the shoes in his hand. He handed it to Cagalli.

"Here."

Cagalli, well, everyone, in fact, gaped at him. No one had thought Athrun would use that kind of way to get things; they knew how much he hated having fan girls around him. Kira was the first one who came to his sense; he nudged Cagalli, muttering "say thanks, at least."

Cagalli looked startled but compelled anyway. "T-Thanks, Athrun. I'll pay, wait…"

Athrun looked at her searching her pockets for her purse, before waving his hand airily at the girl. "It's okay. Don't pay. I give it to you."

Purse already at hand, Cagalli looked up, bewildered. "Eh? Wha…? Of course I have to pay! It's 90 dollar, isn't it? Here…"

The blue-haired lad pushed the cash back to Cagalli slowly. He looked around. "I said no need, didn't I? Come on; let's go out if you are not buying anything else."

* * *

They went out from the stores, with heads turning at their way as they walk. The girls (except Cagalli) wanted to buy some clothes so they went to Women's Department in the clothes store. Athrun, Cagalli and Yzak hanged out at the corners, watching their friends fussing on dresses, blouses and skirts. Kira and Dearka did not mind assisting their girlfriends choosing the clothes, and Miguel had gone to the gents.

"Athrun, really… "Cagalli appealed again. "Take the money. I can't have you giving me things every time."

And Athrun sighed, again; his shades were put on once more time. "What every time? The hamster was months ago. The cell phone is to compensate your broken one. Just accept it."

Cagalli frowned. "I don't like people giving me things without any occasion…"

"Let's find an occasion then… well, you and Captain hooked up. That's a gift from me." Athrun said off-handedly.

"Athrun…" Cagalli's voice shook dangerously.

Athrun heaved an audible sighed, his face troubled. He hated it when people got this insistent. "Fine. That's for leaving the team abruptly. You don't like it, right? Play better with those shoes for my behalf, then."

The answer silenced Cagalli as she put back the money into her purse. Athrun was right; she did not like it when he decided to leave the basketball team so suddenly. She had tried persuading him to stay but he would not budge from his decision. Not that she had to right to have a say on his decision, though.

Miguel appeared some minutes later, and dragged Cagalli to take a look at some hoodies he had seen on his way. That left Yzak and Athrun alone, awkward air surrounding them. They had known each other since childhood but never been blossom friends. So it was a surprise for Athrun when Yzak started a conversation.

"She looks happy."

"Ah?" Athrun asked, bewildered. "Who?"

"Hahnenfuss," said Yzak quietly, his eyes not leaving the girl in mention.

But it still did not clear up the matter to Athrun. "And why shouldn't her?"

Yzak sighed. "She's acting weird this lately. Like having problems. But she won't talk about it."

"Why don't you ask?" Athrun rolled his eyes. "Such a simple matter."

The silver-haired guy gave him a look, which explained everything to Athrun. Of course he would not ask; he was the great Yzak Joule, wasn't him?

"You want me to try asking her?" he offered with a smile.

Another look from Yzak, and he got the answer.

"Fine. I'll try asking her later."

* * *

"Who wants this?" Athrun waved the piece of paper given by the girl from the sport store as they were waiting for their food to be served.

Dearka raised his hand excitedly for a moment before putting it down back at a look on Miriallia's face. Yzak did not even look interested while Kira just shook his head good-naturedly, smiling. Miguel looked at Cagalli, raised an eyebrow as if asking "Should I take it?" and laughed at Cagalli's glare.

Athrun sighed and put the paper back into his pocket. "Well, I'll keep it, then. Might be useful someday."

Lacus gaped. "Athrun! You don't…you don't plan to play with her or something, do you?"

"Lacus…" Athrun smiled at his ex-fiancée. "You know I won't do that…"

Lacus frowned and looked at Kira for support. Kira sighed.

"We are surprised that you use that way to get the shoes, Athrun. That's something that Dearka would do, not you. No offence, mate, but you know it's true." Kira said the last sentence to Dearka who just waved airily.

Athrun shrugged as he looked around, catching some more attention from the girls. "No harm is done, Kira, Lacus. I am single, anyway."

Miriallia leaned forward interestedly. "So what about the rumour I heard of you asking Meyrin to go out with us today, eh?"

Shiho nodded eagerly as she, too, moved a bit forward, waiting for Athrun's answer. Even Cagalli looked a bit interested, even though she tried not to show it much. The boys rolled their eyes; all had enough with their girlfriends being too interested on who Athrun would date next. The exception was Miguel, though; he did not seem care that Cagalli was interested on Athrun but continued to put his arm on her waist as he stared at the blonde lovingly.

Athrun threw a reproachful look at Lacus, who smiled back innocently. He frowned at the enthusiastic girls in front of him. "There's nothing between me and Meyrin…."

"But I heard that you sent her home every day," Shiho cut him off.

"You know how late we usually go home. It's only proper that I send her home. It's just an act of a gentleman, Shi…" explained Athrun patiently. He was surprised that Shiho even knew this piece of information. He indeed sent Meyrin home every time they had to stay back to do things for the council but the others would have gone back at that time; how could she know that?

"But she obviously likes you," Miriallia gave her opinion. "There will be no problem if you are dating her, right, Athrun? I mean, she is one of them, your fangirls, so they won't treat her badly?"

Lacus nodded at this. "They treated Meer-san just fine when you dated her."

The blue-haired guy sighed in exasperation. "I don't plan on getting one soon, girls. They don't bother me much now that I spend so much time in the council room, so there's no really need to get one."

"So you indeed think having a girlfriend is all about avoiding fangirls?" Came Cagalli's icy voice.

Athrun stared at Cagalli, his expression unreadable. The others shifted awkwardly on their seats. Lacus, Miriallia and Shiho immediately regretted having brought up the matter on the first place. It seemed like a few years had passes when Athrun broke the eye contact, sighing.

"Does it matter to you somehow, Cagalli?" he asked.

Cagalli blushed slightly and looked at her boyfriend to hide the fact. "Nah, I'm just afraid Miguel is dating me because he wants to avoid his fangirls."

Miguel, Yzak and Dearka laughed at this. Miguel shook his head and kissed Cagalli lightly on cheek. "You know very well that's not the case, Missy…"

Shiho smiled at the couple. "Cagalli and Ayman-senpai look so lovey-dovey."

"Cagalli is so lucky to get someone like Ayman-senpai, isn't she?" agreed Miriallia.

"Just call me Miguel, you all," Miguel corrected with a smile. "And nah, it's me that's lucky to get Missy."

"Stop it, Miguel. You are embarrassing me…" moaned Cagalli when another kiss landed on her cheek, but she did not push him away. If anything, she looked delighted with the undivided attention from her boyfriend.

Kira was surprised to find himself actually enjoy seeing Miguel pampering Cagalli. He knew he had acted very stern when it was Athrun but at that time he did not know how serious Athrun was. But now he could see that Miguel indeed loved Cagalli in a way that Kira could not help but to approve. Cagalli seemed very happy when she was with Miguel and that was all Kira needed.

But of course, he felt a little bad for Athrun. He noticed how Athrun would avert his gaze whenever Cagalli was with Miguel, like he was doing now. He had tried to talk to Athrun the night after Cagalli announced to everyone that she was going out with Miguel.

_"You are okay with that, Athrun?" he had asked._

_"Hmm…" Athrun replied on the side of the line. "I know it'll be this way."_

_"You know?"_

_"She is fond of him. I noticed that since our first practice."_

_"She was crying so hard last night, Athrun. She won't even eat dinner. She is really upset that you end the deal just like that."_

_"She is just upset that she could not explain herself. She herself decides to go out with Captain, not me."_

_"Then, what about you?"_

_"What about me?"_

_"You love her, right? You want to let her go just like that?"_

_"It doesn't matter now, Kira."_

_"How come it doesn't matter?"_

_"She will better off be with him. I will be busy with the student council, and if we continue the deal, I won't be there most of the time to protect her."_

_"We can do that, me and the others."_

_"It's too much hassle, Kira. All she wants is a happy high school life. I don't worth that much trouble."_

_"How are you going to face them? She sits next to you in class, and there are still basketball practices…"_

_"It's all right. I'm thinking of quitting basketball. I don't have time for it anymore now that I've joined the council."_

_"Athrun…you know as much as this sounds noble, it sounds stupid, right?"_

_"I know. Don't worry, Kira. Consider the case closed."_

_"Athrun…"_

_"Case closed, Kira."_

So there was nothing Kira could do for the two of them, despite Lacus' constant whine of concern. Athrun was right; Cagalli had wanted a happy high school life. If Miguel was the one who could give her that, then Kira had no objection whatsoever.

"Here comes our food, guys…"

* * *

They went home around six in the evening. Miguel had to drop by to his father's office so Athrun only had to drive Kira, Cagalli and Lacus home. Lacus had decided to stay at the twins' place for dinner as Mrs. Hibiki was not home. Athrun had declined Kira's offer to stay, though, saying that he hated to leave his mother all alone at home. So he excused himself to go home after a glass of water offered by Kira.

"Athrun, wait!"

Athrun turned, and surprised to see Cagalli jogging after him as he made way to his car parked in front of the house. He stopped and waited for her.

"What is it?" he asked after Cagalli had stopped panting.

Cagalli handed him a paper bag, her face red. She could pass by saying it was from the running, but it might not be the case. She looked up slowly, her ambers meeting Athrun's emeralds.

Athrun did not take the bag but stared at her questioningly. He was sure the bag wasn't his; he did not buy anything but some food supply for his pets.

"It's for you," Cagalli insisted, pushing the bag towards Athrun. "F-For the shoes. Even though you said it is for leaving the team but… I will only feel better if I give you something in return. It's not much but take it, please."

The green-eyed lad sighed and took the paper bag from Cagalli. "I see. Thanks, Cagalli. See you at school."

For a moment, he moved forward to give her a kiss before stopping himself just in time. Colour rose on his cheeks as he turned, muttering a soft 'sorry' to the blonde.

Cagalli stared as the black BMW dashed. She touched her cheek, which felt really hot. When Athrun leaned forward just now, she automatically closed her eyes, expecting a kiss. She immediately reprimanded herself; Athrun was not her boyfriend anymore, Miguel was. She should keep treating him like a mere friend, like she had been doing for these two months.

If only she could tell that to her heart.

* * *

"Thanks for sending me home," said Shiho as she leaned forward to kiss Yzak.

Yzak kept the kiss longer than usual before letting Shiho go. His electric blue eyes stared deep into Shiho's before he turned. "Hmm. See you."

Shiho waited until Yzak left her sight before she turned away and checked the letter box. She took out some bills and looked at them one by one. Something fell when she was doing that so she bent to pick it up. She froze when she realized what it was. Slowly, she reached for the letter, which was in a white, formal envelope, bearing the name Ms. Shiho Hafhenfuss outside in bold. Her hand shook as she held the letter and stood up.

"Another one…"

**There. I hope that's okay. LOL. I don't know when I would be updating again but I suppose I will explain Shiho's matter in the next chapter. And and...reviews will make me happy yo! XD**


	4. Chapitre IV : The Challenges

**Hi! Hee. Okay, so I haven't updated this story for like 2 years. LOL. I don't really have any excuse for that so sorry. I'm really happy that I still got some readers, though – so here is the latest installment. Who knows when will I update again but reviews might catalyst the process! :D **

**Enjoy!**

**Chapitre 4 - The Challenges**

"I want to break up with you."

Yzak was never known for his talking skills, but for the first time of his life he lost his words altogether. His brain seemed to be freeze together with the time. For almost a minute, he stared at the girl he was sitting with; unable to find anything to utter.

Shiho had started to think that Yzak did not hear her for the first time so she repeated, "I want to…"

"I heard you," Yzak snapped.

The lad ran his long fingers to his silvery hair, turning his gaze to the surrounding instead of the girl beside him; his girl. She had been acting weird for weeks and it did not go unnoticed. But Yzak, being himself, had too much pride to ask but cared enough to ask for help from a friend of theirs who had superb listening and problem-solving skills. To be fair, it was quite remarkable for Yzak to turn to the said friend, Athrun – considering that they had been rivals for everything through their entire lives together. However, as much as he wanted to help, Athrun had been tied up with his work for the student council so the matter was left unattended.

When Shiho asked him to would he like to hang out at their so-called secret place, Yzak was actually convinced that she finally would like share her problem with him. But then they sat there looking at the scenery in silence for almost ten minutes without Shiho saying anything. Yzak was already close to explode in irritation before Shiho dropped the bomb.

"So, that's it, then."

At the moment when Yzak turned to his left where Shiho was, the girl had already stood up, dusting at the back of her skirt. Her expression was unreadable as she turned away quickly and started to leave.

"So that's it, then? That's all you wanted to say to me?" Yzak asked, stopping Shiho from her pace. He stood up, and walked until he was directly in front of the girl; his eyes icy. "Look at me and tell me this is all you want, Hahnenfuss."

Shiho looked up and her hazel brown eyes met Yzak's electric blue. "Breaking up with you is all I want, Yzak."

* * *

BAMMM!

A long crack was formed on the board.

BAMMMMMM!

The board finally cracked into two.

BAMMMMMMMMMM!

Dearka closed his eyes to pray for a safe departure of his mini basketball net backboard to heaven. He opened his eyes just in time to snatch the ball from Yzak who was aiming at the wall where the net used to be.

"Stop it dude, you'll demolish my house next. What's wrong?" he asked.

It was not Dearka's intention to wait until his mini basketball net backboard was smashed to pieces to ask the question but Yzak had barged unceremoniously into his room just minutes ago with murderous face and started abusing his net without warning that he was actually taken aback by the sudden occurrence.

"She broke up with me."

There was no need to ask who Yzak was talking about; there was only one 'she' for him. The news explained everything quite clearly to Dearka about Yzak's sudden explosion. But the news also brought him in surprise. He had not seen it coming and he believed none of their other friends had too.

"But, why?" Deaka asked unbelievably.

"Hell knows," was Yzak's answer.

Yzak's face was so distressed that Dearka took pity at him. Yzak might not be the best boyfriend in the world but everyone knew how much he treasured Shiho. In fact she should be the one who understood how much Yzak loved her. It was still hard for Dearka to actually believe that she initiated the separation.

Dearka patted Yzak's shoulder lightly. "Tough up bro. We'll see what we can do."

* * *

"So Dearka told Milly who told Lacus who told Kira who told you that Shiho is breaking up with Yzak?" Athrun repeated the information relayed by the blonde girl in front of him.

Cagalli nodded anxiously. Her face shone with sweat as she was just back from her basketball practice. She only checked her cell phone after the practice ended and found 11 miscalls from her twin, Kira. When she called him back, he had launched instantly to the news about Yzak and Shiho. After the call ended, Cagalli rushed to find Athrun to let him know because apparently he was not reachable by his cell phone.

Athrun's face was almost as anxious as Cagalli upon hearing the news. Guilt hit him instantly. He should not have taken the matter lightly and attended to it earlier. But of course, he did not know that it was that serious to the point of breaking up.

"What are we going to do, Athrun?" asked Cagalli, breaking Athrun from his thought.

Athrun glanced at his workplace where Meyrin silently cleared their table. "We have finished for today. I-I have to send Meyrin home first then I'll go see Yzak. Or Shiho. Any one of them. See what I can do to help."

The 'send-Meyrin-home' part stabbed Cagalli right in the heart. She peered into the room and noticed how only Meyrin and Athrun were left in the room. Jealousy started to blossom in her heart but she tried to shove it away. It got nothing to do with her anymore, after all. Athrun was free to date anyone else – even though her hearts seemed not to be able to be convinced by that.

"I'm done, Athrun," Meyrin's voice snapped Cagalli out of her thought. She immediately backed out a step for no reason. She averted her eyes to avoid seeing Athrun turning and smiling in reply to Meyrin; taking his bag and stuffs from the girl with a thank you.

Luckily, Miguel came to her rescue. Came running with his wet hair and carrying both of their bags and files, he asked, "You done here, Missy?"

Cagalli drew a smile at Miguel, feeling relief at his presence. "Yes, let's go home Miguel."

Turning to Athrun, she forced another smile. "Then I'll leave their matter to you, Athrun. Let us know how's the things going later – everyone is worried sick. See you tomorrow; and you too, Meyrin."

Both Athrun and Meyrin waved at the couple before exiting the building as well. Meyrin tried to start some small talks with Athrun but it was clear that he was too pre-occupied to pay attention to any of them. In the end, she stopped talking at all and walked in silence.

There were indeed many things running thought Athrun's mind. He was trying to find a solution for Yzak and Shiho's problem and at the same time, he tried to kill the thought of murdering Miguel in his sleep. He hated the fact how Miguel could spend all the time with her without any specific reason and make her smile with such ease.

"Athrun, we're here."

Meyrin's voice stopped him in his track and indeed, he had walked a few steps past Meyrin's house. He flashed a guilty grin and took a few steps back. He handed Meyrin her stuffs that he had been holding; an act of a gentleman he was taught by his mother.

"I'm sorry, Rin. My mind was somewhere else," he apologized.

Meyrin shook her head and smiled. "It's okay, I understand. I hope everything will be fine. Take care and see you tomorrow, Athrun."

"See you tomorrow, Rin."

* * *

_**Going to see Shiho now. See what I can do. Sorry**_

Yzak threw the phone away after reading the text, as swiftly as he scrambled for it when the mail alert came. He lied flat on his back, staring at his room ceiling. He had been at it for hours; since he came back from Dearka's place. During these hours he tried to think what probably have triggered Shiho's decision to break up. They had fought a lot, of course but none of it was out of norm for them. Shiho would always smile again at him after a while and he would know that things were perfectly okay.

But recently Shiho had stopped smiling at him for no reason. She talked less and less, to the point that they were not talking at all. No more random texts from her telling what she had for dinner or even good night wishes. Yzak was of course perplexed by the sudden change but his egoistical pride had prevented him from doing anything.

How he regretted it now.

"_Do you think love will last forever, Yzak? Is there such thing as eternal love?" Shiho had asked him one day, while they were walking home, hand in hand._

_Yzak shrugged indifferently. "How should I know? I haven't lived until forever yet."_

_Chuckling, Shiho gave the question a thought. "I think it does exist, though."_

_Yzak's electric blue orbs met her ambers. _

"_Then, prove it to me."_

"_Sure."_

"So this is our forever, huh?"

**That is quite short, right? *sigh* Do review and tell me what you think!**

**-Mayu**


	5. Chapitre V : The Future

**Guess what? It's an update! Yay~ lol I didn't realize I took more than 6 months to come up with this chapter. I'm so sorry TT~TT Oh well, go on and read! **

**Chapter 5 – The Future**

"He sent you, huh? I was betting on you or Lacus."

The room fell silent as Athrun simply smiled at Shiho's icy remark. He was sitting on Shiho's study chair while the girl sat on her bed, surrounded by her knitting equipments. On the surface Shiho looked calm, her hands moving the needles skillfully as stitches by stitches formed. Athrun tried to guess the final product but not avail since Shiho had just started and she was known to do all sorts of knitwear from socks to sweaters. It was also known, however, that knitting wass Shiho's own kind of therapy. Nevertheless, in this case, her well-concealed red, puffy eyes explained more.

Shiho eyed Athrun cautiously. She had expected Athrun to come; Lacus and him worked as the problem solver in their group of friend, after all - and had warned her mother especially to not to let him come in but her worried mother betrayed her without much effort from Athrun. His reason of coming was supposed to be 'wanting to talk to her about something' but he had not said anything other than greetings since 10 minutes ago when he was admitted into the room. Trust him to play some psychology tricks on her and she was adamant not to fall to any of them.

"Athrun," she called after another five minutes. "Thought you want to talk."

Athrun shrugged with a smile. "I changed my mind – why don't I listen, while you talk?"

His cool statement riled her up at once – for some reason, her patience had thinned to the level of Yzak's. "You're the one who wants to talk! If you have nothing else, just go home!"

Shiho did not usually raise her voice on him but Athrun did not mind the slightest. He knew full well how it felt to lose a relationship, and he also happened to know Shiho did not lose hers on her wills. Everyone who knows her would understand how much she loved Yzak – only love could make someone stand Yzak, anyway.

"I just feel like you need someone to talk right now, you know."

"Let's just say you're wrong for once, Mr. Athrun Zala," Shiho scorned.

_That _made Athrun to flinch – it reminded him too much of Yzak, but the smile was not yet wiped off from his weary face.

"I don't think so, though," he retaliated firmly. "Everyone needs to talk when making some important decision, such as breaking up with their steady boyfriends."

Shiho finally looked up; transparent beads began to form in her beautiful hazel eyes. "I particularly don't want to talk about that. Even you won't be able to make me, Athrun."

"But I don't want to make you, Shi," Athrun said gently. "I want _you_ to talk to me."

* * *

Cagalli and Miguel were walking home together as usual, hand in hand. They talked about various things, jumping from one topic to another – from what Cagalli wished for dinner later to how they like the progress of the How I Met Your Mother series. They had a lot of things in common so the conversation was never ending. Plus, Miguel knew how to steer from the topics that they did not see eye to eye together – he was tactful like that. The effort did not go unnoticed by Cagalli and she appreciated it by pretending oblivious.

"You know what, Missy, I've been wondering this," Miguel started, looking sideways at the girl. "Do you all always go to Zala when something comes up?"

Cagalli considered the question for a while. "Well, I haven't been here that long but from what I heard from Kira, Athrun has always been their voice of reason; everyone listen and depend on him."

Miguel nodded knowingly. He had not known Athrun for that long either but he could catch a glimpse of Athrun's personality during the short time Athrun had joined the basketball team. Confident as he was, Athrun voiced out his opinion clearly even though he did not even belong to the the Basketball Club like the rest of the members are. Some members, especially the seniors, of course, did not like him for that but they most of the time had to admit that he was pointing out the truth; and with that exceptional talent of his, he had every right to give opinions, anyway.

"Then, does my Missy turn to him as well?" Miguel tilted his head at Cagalli, smiling teasingly.

Cagalli blushed as she nudged her boyfriend with her body, earning a bark of laughter from the boy.

"I have you now, you know," she said determinedly, giving Miguel's hand a squeeze.

Miguel returned the squeeze. "I know, Missy, _I know_."

* * *

"Yzak, I'm home."

Yzak leaped up from his laying form and turned to the slightly ajar door. He did not usually lock the door but the house servants knew not to enter without knocking – the house of Joule was known to keep the relation civil between the masters and servants. Indeed, the one standing on his door was not any of the servants but his own mother, Ezalia Joule in her crisp business suit. Yzak automatically directed his gaze to the calendar on his table – there was nothing marked for today; it was not his birthday nor his mother's birthday and neither his father's death anniversary. Why would his mother be home today?

"Yzak?"

"Ah, welcome home, mother," Yzak got up from his bed and walked to the door. He leaned over a little to receive a kiss on forehead from his mother.

Ezalia looked at her son up and down before smiling. "Go change, we'll have dinner at my friend's steakhouse in an hour."

Yzak gave her a questioning look but Ezalia simply turned and left without giving him any chance to ask anything whatsoever.

* * *

An hour later, both Ezalia and Yzak had already seated in their booked table at Layla Steak House. It was a fairly new restaurant but had been greatly promoted so the tables were mostly occupied even at a weekday night. Ezalia and Yzak were served exclusively by the owner of the restaurant, Layla Hestenfluss who was Ezalia's friend back in university. They talked for a little bit and soon after Layla left with their orders.

"Mother," Yzak finally had his chance to talk. "What's the occasion tonight?"

Ezalia smiled at him but Yzak could not help but to notice that it was not the motherly smile he always received but rather a smile of a businesswoman that her mother known as. Ezalia Joule, in her late 30s, inherited the company of Joule Corp. from her unfortunately deceased husband. Many were skeptical of her ability to maintain the status of the company as one of the best in PLANTs, and not a few suggested that the company should be sold and the money would be divided to stockholders as per ratio of their share. But Ezalia refused point blank, saying that she would have Yzak inherited the company as he should when he turned 21 but meanwhile she would lead the company as to succeed her husband. Much to everyone's surprise, she managed to maintain the position of the company while raising the performance by 13% in her first month.

However, there was something she had to sacrifice for her success. The business was based in PLANTs, two towns away from Heliopolis so she barely had time to see Yzak as he grew up. She had made effort to move Yzak to PLANTs with her but Yzak stubbornly refused, saying that he was only home in Heliopolis. As not to restrain their already estranged relationship, Ezalia respected his wish. She tried her best to communicate with him through phone calls and sometimes video calls so over years, she could proudly say that her feelings were conveyed successfully towards Yzak. They could talk about various things now, despite the distance. Ezalia made sure that she was home for special occasions such as Yzak's birthday, her own birthday, her husband's death anniversary, New Years and Christmas. It was rare, therefore, for her to be home on random day like today.

"You are already in your second year, aren't you, Yzak?" she answered Yzak's enquiry with a question.

Yzak nodded curtly in response.

"It's not long before you're 21 and eligible to succeed the company," Ezalia smiled more fondly at the prospect of her statement. "I'd like you to start on your business education soon, Yzak."

The silver-haired boy flinched. "You know what I want to be in the future, mother; you know it doesn't involve the company."

Ezalia shook her head, frowning. "Now now, Yzak, please don't be difficult. I want to have someone come to the house and teach you the basics to business. I have been informed that you have your archery practices in weekends so I would have to take your weekdays evenings instead. Monday to Friday, 3 to 6 – you're free, right?"

Technically, Yzak was free at the given time. His Archery Club only held meetings and practices during weekends, just like the information his mother had conveniently gathered. But what his mother did not know was he usually stayed at school till late evening almost every day since Shiho got her cheerleading practices on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Yzak had never failed to send her home every day; something he was secretly proud of. It was actually the only time they could spend alone without their other friends.

"I- I can't on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays," said Yzak slowly, meeting his mother's firm eyes. "Hahnenfuss got her cheerleading practices on these days, and I have to send her home."

Any warmth that was previously present on Ezalia's face disappeared almost immediately. "Hahnenfuss, as in…?"

Yzak blushed faintly. "Shiho Hahnenfuss, my girlfriend."

It was the first time Yzak had introduced Shiho as his girlfriend to anyone – the irony was the girl had just asked for a break-up. But his mother did not know that, Yzak thought ruefully, and she did not need to know that.

Ezalia pursed her lips as her electric blue eyes that Yzak inherited glinted dangerously. However, before she got to say anything, Yzak's cell phone rang. The boy asked for permission to answer it with his eyes and she granted it with a nod, still frowning.

"Zala? I'm having dinner right now… What, where…? Now? Wait, I'll come, yeah."

It was a fairly short conversation but it got Yzak all worked up. His electric blue eyes regained their shine for the first time today. He looked at his mother hopefully as he hung up the phone.

"May I leave for a while? Something came up. I'll take the car."

"Is it that Shiho girl?" There was an edge in Ezalia's voice.

Yzak hesitated for a while. "No…that was Zala, you know, Athrun Zala."

Ezalia knew Athrun Zala, of course. He was the only friend of Yzak she actually approved; despite Yzak's insistence that they were not actually friends. She worked with Patrick Zala, Athrun's father, countless time before and had come to think that there was no other more suitable acquaintance for Yzak except for the heir of Zala & Clyne Corp. Gingerly she took out the car keys from her handbag from Gucci latest collection and handed them out to her son.

"Don't take too long; I won't eat without you."

Yzak took the key and leaned over to kiss his mother on the cheek before leaving the place in a mannered dash.

On the phone, Athrun had said something about finding out the reason of the break out from Shiho. He refused to tell Yzak then but insisted that he came to talk to Shiho himself. According to Athrun, they were waiting for him at the park near their school. It only took Yzak five minutes to reach the place by car. He could see the silhouette of Shiho sitting on the swing with Athrun standing beside her as he pulled the car over. He did not like the fact that Athrun had to be alone with Shino in such a secluded place but at least the park is well-lit.

"Zala. Hahnenfuss."

Shiho's gaze remained rooted at her own shoes while Athrun looked up at the calling, smiling slightly. He approached the approaching Yzak. He pulled out something from his bag and slammed them lightly to the silver-haired boy's chest.

"Wha- Hell, what is this?" Yzak cursed as he fumbled over what looked like some letters.

"The reason. See for yourself and talk to her – I'll be over there."

* * *

As Athrun walked away, Yzak took a look at the letters. There were five altogether, opened but still in their envelopes – **Ms. Shiho Hahnenfuss **written in bold on each envelope. There was no address written which meant they must have been sent in person. Yzak took out a letter curiously. His electric blue eyes widened as they darted along the sentences. As soon as he finished, he furiously started checking out the other letters. His teeth remained gritted all along, his face as tense as it could be. By the time he finished with the last one, the letters were already crushed in his hand.

"Hell. Fucking hell. What is she thinking, damn it!" Yzak muttered vehemently under his breath. He turned to the still Shiho on the swing. "Is this why?"

The girl nodded wordlessly.

Yzak sighed, stuffing the letters in his pocket. He walked towards Shiho who showed no effort to acknowledge his presence.

"You should have told me earlier." There was an accusation in his voice.

"She specifically wrote not to tell you, didn't she?" Shiho rebutted through gritted teeth.

"Well, she told you not to tell anyone as well but you can tell Zala alright – is he a special case or what?"

Shiho looked up, her look throwing daggers at Yzak. "I have no time for your stupid jealousy now, Yzak Joule."

"YOU – " Yzak stopped himself just in time, realizing this was not right time to be shouting at her. It was good enough that she wanted to talk, it was good enough that she did not actually want the break-up.

There was silence for a while; the stillness could even be noticed by Athrun who had been watching few meters away. He palmed himself on his forehead, annoyed by the lack of progress by the two. He had thought it would be nice if the two could settle the problem by themselves without him butting in; he had butted in enough already. But it was not going to well so far. Sighing, Athrun decided to give them another 10 minutes before he would drag himself to help them so that he could finally go home.

Yzak was as desperate as Athrun. Discussion was never his best point yet he knew he had to nail this well. Shiho was very important to him, maybe not more than his own mother, but not any less either. Even if it meant toning down his humongous ego, he had to get Shiho back.

"Look, I'll settle this so let's call off the break-up thing, okay?" Yzak said as civilly as possible.

Shiho's eyes started to brim with tears again. "How are you going to do that? Can you make sure my mother will be left untouched? She knows nothing about this. And I don't want you to get into trouble because of us…"

Yzak dropped on his knees almost unconsciously. His large hands reached Shiho's small face, wiping the tears gently; his expression softened – Shiho's tears always managed to make his heart fluttered. He pulled the girl into a hug.

"I'll do whatever I can," he said slowly but determinedly. "So, Hahnenfuss…"

"I don't care about me, just my mother, spare her out from this, please –" Shiho begged tearfully, staring at Yzak's electric blue eyes. "I can lose anything but her, Yzak, even if it's you…"

The silver-haired boy gritted his teeth but his hand pulled Shiho back into his embrace, resting her head on his shoulder as his long fingers ran through her silky brown hair.

"I know that. I'll protect her, I'll protect you – I'll protect both of you the same. And I won't get into the trouble so don't worry. I'll do anything, so leave it to me, will you? ," he said convincingly, injecting some confidence into himself at the same time.

It took some time for Shiho to be convinced as she knew full well of Yzak's capabilities in discussing but in the end, she decided to trust him for once. She parted herself from Yzak, staring deep into his eyes.

"Promise me you won't lose your temper?"

"OF COURSE, TRY TRUSTING ME FOR ONCE, WILL YOU?" That was what Yzak would like to say; in fact, the words were just at the tip of his tongue. Yet somehow, he managed to suppress it as he returned the gaze.

"Promise."

* * *

Athrun walked into the compound of his house as the automatic gate closed off. He expected to see his mother sitting on the swing in her garden, waiting for him but surprisingly there was no sight of her. Athrun was glad, in a way. It was quite a chilly night, after all and it was almost 10 o'clock already the last time he checked his watch.

He almost did not believe it was already that late. He supposed he could go home after Yzak and Shiho made up but Yzak asked him another favour to send Shiho home because apparently he was in the middle of dinner with his mother. He obliged, of course, even though Shiho's house was not all in his way home – in fact, her house is the furthest away for his. But as long as the two made up, he could at least do that.

An involuntary smile appeared on his tired face as he pushed the unlocked door open – remembering what had happened just before he and Shiho parted ways with Yzak.

"_I owe you a big one, Zala," Yzak said as he patted Athrun's shoulder for the first time ever. "I'm gonna return it someday."_

_Athrun smiled at the boy he had been hanged out with since forever but never reaching the friend status. "Then you could start by calling me 'Athrun', Yzak."_

* * *

"Mom?" Athrun entered the kitchen. There was no sign of his mother. He glanced at the dinner table and surprised to see it as clean as possible – what about his dinner?

The blue-haired lad went upstairs and walked towards the main bedroom that was supposed to be his parents' but nowadays it was just his mother's; Athrun did not remember when was the last time his father spent the night at home.

"Mom? May I enter?" asked Athrun as he knocked the door twice. There was some shuffling noise heard from inside the room and a few moments later, the door was opened, revealing Lenore Zala in her nightwear.

The woman in her early forties with blue hair a shade lighter than Athrun's smiled. "Welcome home, Athrun. Quite late, today?"

Athrun returned the smile almost automatically despite noticing red traces in his mother's beautiful eyes. His sense turned alert at once, wondering what had caused his mother to cry and hide it from him.

"I'm home. I'm sorry, there was a little problem with Yzak and Shiho. That aside, is everything okay?" he threw in the question as casually as possible.

_Please, you cannot know about that. Please, anything but that. _

Lenore nodded, still wearing her signature motherly smile even though it did not quite reach her eyes. "Everything's fine, Athrun dear. Oh, I hope you've had dinner? There is nothing left, but I can fix you some right now if you haven't…"

"It's okay, Shiho invited me for dinner," It was not actually a lie; Athrun had only left the part where he declined her offer, thinking that he got dinner waiting for him at home. He was hungry but he hated to trouble his mother some more when it was clear that she was already troubled by something. "If there's anything, tell me, please, mom. You don't look too good."

"Are you saying I'm getting old, Athrun?" teased Lenore as twinkle returned into her eyes that were inherited by Athrun. "I'm alright, just a little bit tired from work so I think I'm hitting the bed early today. You should get some rest, too, Athrun. You can fill me about Yzak and Shiho later, okay?"

Athrun smiled and nodded. "Alright. Good night, mom. I love you."

"Good night, my dear. I love you more," said Lenore as she let herself be kissed good night by her only son.

* * *

Yzak returned to the dinner with his mother who was already looking impatient. After an apology from Yzak, the two Joules started their dinner in silence. It was one of the house rules – no conversation over any meals. Not that they usually had meals together, anyway.

When the dinner was cleared and the coffee was served, Yzak sit up even straighter than he already was, fire lit in his eyes. He reached for something in his pocket and pulled out some opened letters before putting them on center of the table. Shock was shown on Ezalia's face even though she was acting as nonchalant as possible.

"Care to explain, Mother?"

Ezalia eyed the letter with contempt as she sipped on her coffee. "What should I explain about?"

Yzak gritted his teeth at his mother's stance. "About you sending threat letters to my girlfriend, I suppose."

"You read the letters, right? That was all to it."

The answer enraged Yzak that he almost knocked his own coffee cup but then he got reminded by his promise to Shiho. Taking a deep breath, he started again.

"Please stay out of my relationship, Mother."

Ezalia stared at him, her face void of any expression, as her hand gripped the cup handle hard. It was the first time she ever saw Yzak looking so resolute after the previous time when he was adamant to stay in Heliopolis instead of moving to PLANTs.

"She is not suitable for you, Yzak. If you want a girlfriend, I'll introduce you with some daughters of my business partners," she said slowly but firmly.

If look could kill, Yzak has just murdered his own mother. His fist was clenched yet again, trembling with anger.

"No thanks, Mother, I don't want a girlfriend who will grow up to be just like you," he snarled, trying his best not to lose his temper but failing at keeping the sarcasm off from his choice of words. "So what if she is raised by a single parent? So what if she is not an heir of some sort? At least I know she won't be sending letters to her son's girlfriend demanding a break-up."

"Yzak Joule!"

"How low can you get, Mother? I'd think you as a single mother would understand the situation of her family. But you use that to your advantage, making her to choose between her mother's job and me – is that even a choice?" Yzak continued despite Ezalia's warning. "And you actually think that I'd give up and inherit the company as you so wish if she leaves me? Mother, I _love_ her more than I ever love anyone but I don't _live_ for her – you are underestimating me."

Now Ezalia looked furious. "I am just thinking of you, Yzak Joule. She could do better than hindering your chance. And if she really loves you, this will not stop her, will it? Yet she readily breaks up with you like –"

"You threatened her with her mother's job!" Yzak cut her off shakily, gritting his teeth in order to prevent himself from shouting. "And she is stupid enough to believe about you disowning me as if it will ever happen in this lifetime."

Ezalia opened her mouth to retaliate but Yzak raised a hand to stop her.

"If you're just thinking of me, Mother, you won't do this," he continued firmly. "She keeps me sane, that girl. She keeps me happy. And I don't care how my future is as long as she is in it. Let us be, _please_."

Silence filled the space on the table as both of the Joules stared at each other; Yzak pleading while Ezalia contemplating. After a few minute, the mother seemed to reach a decision.

"If I let you two be, will you inherit the company?"

Yzak was taken aback by the proposal but he took less than 30 seconds to come up with a definite answer.

"Sure."

It was Ezalia's turn to be taken aback. She half expected the answer but not the firmness that came along with Yzak's decision. She expected Yzak to strike a bargain, or at least hesitate. But he seemed so ready to make his choice as if it was what he wanted all along and Ezalia knew full well that it was not the case.

"You will inherit the company and forget about being a pilot?" she asked for confirmation. Yzak was all about being a pilot since he was younger, stubbornly refusing his fate to be the heir of the family company until a second ago.

Yzak nodded. "As long as you keep her and her mother out from your reach."

"What about the business lessons – will you spare your weekdays evenings?"

Another nod. "Just leave out my weekends."

Some more silence and Ezalia released an exasperated sigh. It was supposed to be her win; getting Yzak into inheriting the company was all she wanted. But somehow it did not feel as good as she had expected.

"It's a deal, then," Ezalia finally gave up. "Though, I didn't think you'd make up your mind so easily."

Yzak smiled. "I told you – I don't care what kind of future it is, as long as she is with me."

* * *

Athrun had just slipped on his boxer shorts and a thin cotton t-shirt, ready for bed when his phone rang. Reaching for the phone, his eyes widened at the caller's ID as he pushed the button to answer the call.

"Cagalli?"

"_Athrun! Sorry, are you asleep already?_"

"No, what is it?" asked Athrun as he lied down on his bed.

"_Well, I just want to ask about Yzak and Shiho…"_

"Oh, well, I talked to Shiho and let them talk for a bit and just now Yzak texted me saying it has been settled."

"_So they are still together_?"

"Yes, pretty much so."

"_That's great! Wait, I'm gonna tell Kira for a bit..."_

Athrun waited as he heard "_Kira, Yzak and Shiho are back on!_" on the background, smiling slightly.

"_Athrun?_"

"Yes?"

"_What happened actually? Between them._"

"Hmm, I don't think I'm the one to talk. Let's hear from both of them later, if they want to share about it, okay?"

"_Oh, that's right, okay then_."

"Yeah.." Athrun stifled a yawn but it did not go unnoticed by the girl he was having the conversation with.

"_Were you going to sleep just now when I called? Sorry for keeping you…"_

"No, it's okay." _I'd rather talk to you._

"_No, no. You should take a rest. You always seem so tired, Athrun – it's a miracle that you don't fall asleep in classes_."

"And you, Cagalli, is infected by what I call Lacusivitis," Athrun chuckled. "I have enough with Lacus nagging me; please don't turn into her as well."

"_Because it's true…"_

"Right, right. I'm going to sleep now, alright? You should get enough sleep as well – I am supposed to be the tired one, why am I the one who keep

waking you in classes, hmm?"

"_Oh shut it, just go to sleep!_"

Athrun let out a genuine laugh that had not been heard since forever. "Alright, alright. Won't you wish me goodnight, then?"

"_Spoiled brat._" A laugh. "_Okay then, goodnight, Athrun, sweet dreams_."

"Thank you, Cagalli. Goodnight to you, too. See you tomorrow."

That night, Athrun smiled in his sleep, despite the grumbling of his stomach. He dreamed a sweet dream, indeed; of himself and certain blonde.

**This ends up longer than I wish and I even cut off some parts already /sighs Not too much AsuCaga in this chapter so I have to throw in the last scene just to make it lighter. To be honest, the Yzak-Shiho-Ezalia part is so hard to write; that was keeping me from finishing this sooner. I hope I did it well enough, though. Thanks to this chapter being pain in ass, I even manage to write the next chapter even before I finish this chapter /lol So yeah, people, the next chapter is ready to be published – I am just waiting for enough number of review /wink wink **

**p.s. Someone suggested me to make shorter chapters so that I can update faster. I wonder if that will work? How short is short anyway? 2000 ? Do give me your opinions, please.**

**p.s.s. I published a new AsuCaga AU story few months back called A Kiss A Day Keeps Your Right To Play – please check it out if you haven't! :D**

**Till next time, do me a favour and tell me what you think in your reviews and I apologize for not updating regularly but I promise I'll do my best now! =)**

**-Mayu**

* * *

**PREVIEW **

"_You know, I have been thinking – Cagalli moves on real fast, doesn't her?"_

_Cagalli's amber eyes left Miguel's and shifted to Meyrin's onyx ones; warmth in them all gone, leaving unusual coldness. _

"_I wonder how does it concern you at all, Meyrin?"_

* * *

"_I apologize for her rudeness. But I don't think she is in the wrong side at all. No one has the right to tell her of what to do," he said quite calmly._

"_That guy…" Dearka said in disbelief after a few minutes of silence. "He's not Cagalli's boyfriend for nothing, huh?"_


	6. Chapitre VI : The Unchanging Feeling

**Hello, Mayu's here! Thanks for reading and reviewing the previous chapter – so here's the latest installment! **

**Chapter 6 –The Unchanging Feeling**

Next Saturday, the students of Archangel High had their extra-curricular activities according to their respective clubs as per usual. Kira and Lacus deliberately planned a small gathering of their friends after the activities at the school café. It had been quite some time since they hung out together, after all. The activities were supposed to end at 12 and by 12.20 pm, Lacus, Kira, Miriallia and Dearka were already sitting on big, joined tables to wait for their other friends.

At the same time, Miguel was just entering the café. He was supposed to join Cagalli in her gathering with friends. Soon enough, he spotted the group – mainly thanks to Lacus' pink hair that was eye-catching enough despite many attempts from the girls to copy her style.

"Hey guys," greeted Miguel as he reached the table. "Missy told me to wait with you guys."

The second-years smiled at the senior. Cagalli had informed them beforehand that Miguel would be joining them so it was not surprising to see him.

"Hey, Ayman-senpai. Take a seat, seems like the others a little caught up," Kira welcomed the senior warmly, pointing at the vacant seats.

"Ayman-senpai is in Basketball Club, I suppose?" asked Lacus as Miguel took a seat opposite of her and Kira.

Miguel nodded. He looked around at her girlfriend's classmates. "What clubs are you guys in?"

"I'm in Football Club, with Athrun. Lacus . Milly and Dearka are in Photography Club. Shiho is in Cheerleading Club and well, Cagalli is in Archery Club as you know, with Yzak," Kira answered for the others.

"Oh, the Photography Club did the coverage on our match the other day, right?" Miguel turned to Dearka and Milly who were sitting on the same side of the table as him. "I saw the photos on the report – it's cool, thanks!"

Miriallia returned his beam. The report was indeed satisfying and well-received by everyone; the Photography Club was in charge of the photos for the monthly sports school report, in collaboration with the Journalism Club. "You're welcomed; it is our pleasure."

"We got those extra photos we didn't include in the report, right, Milly?" Dearka reminded her as her vice president. "Why don't you show them to Ayman-senpai?"

"Oh yes, wait," the brown-haired nodded as she rummaged into her tote bag for the said photos. Once she found them, she handed the stack of photos to Miguel. "Here, take a look. You can take some if you want; we don't really need to keep all of them."

Miguel took the photos with a 'thanks' and began to flip the photos one by one. The shots were all of players in their action on the field. There were some rare photos of the players looking cool but most of them only depicted the players looking all sweaty and tired that Miguel couldn't help but to chuckle at. His chuckling stopped at a photo, at which his lips were drawn into a fond smile for once. Dearka who sat the closest to him, leaned over to see what photo was that.

"Cagalli, huh?" the tanned second-year smirked.

The captain of the basketball team blushed slightly as he showed the photo to the rest; of a sweaty Cagalli with her amber eyes set to the net with such resolution that it looked so cool indeed. "Yeah, she looks so cool here, aren't her? Can I have this, Miriallia?"

Miriallia spared a glance at the photo, wondering how she could miss the photo while making her selection for the report earlier. Cagalli sure looked good in the photo; 'the Goddess of Victory' that people had been coined her would have been perfect as the caption. "Sure, I don't mind."

"Thanks, don't tell Missy," Miguel whispered conspiringly, earning himself a round of laughter from the others. He took a look at the photo with a lingering smile on his lips before putting it securely in a pocket of his bag.

Lacus looked at him intently, before her sapphire eyes met Kira's amethyst ones. Both of them shared a smile.

"Ayman-senpai, you really like Cagalli, don't you?" the pink-haired girl asked good-naturedly.

"I _love_ her," Miguel answered simply, though a blush slightly tinted his face.

"Now, who is the lucky girl that you love again?"

Miguel and the rest turned towards the sudden voice just to see Cagalli who was standing behind Miguel with her hands on her hips, an eyebrow arched curiously at her boyfriend. There was an uninterested Yzak beside her, who simply went and took a seat between Dearka and Miguel. Seeing that Cagalli was still waiting for an answer, Miguel pulled her hand to make her sit next to him.

"You, of course, Missy," he whispered into her ears, reducing the blonde girl into a deep blush.

The others laughed at the sight, marveling at how easy it was for Miguel to shut Cagalli up. Dearka glanced at his best friend who was fiddling with his cell phone.

"Where's Shiho?" he asked.

"She said she's on her way."

The relationship of Shiho and Yzak had returned to how it originally was, if not better. All of them had all heard the story from Athrun, who told them with permission of the couple; that Yzak's mother sent threat letters to Shiho so that Shiho breaks up with Yzak. It seemed that Yzak had the matter settled somehow, and he managed to gain both his mother's approval and Shiho's trust. No one brought the matter up, though – as to respect both Shiho and Yzak. They were just glad that all went okay and it was mostly thanks to Athrun that the matter could be solved well.

Shiho arrived after a few minute, out from her cheerleading costume and donning simple t-shirt and jeans. She took her seat next to Lacus, opposite to Yzak. That left only Athrun who was missing in their small gathering of friends.

"Athrun sure is late," Miriallia commented as she glanced at her watch. Not that she was rushing or anything but it was so unlike Athrun to be late for anything. "Shouldn't he finish at the same time as you, Kira?"

"He said he has to swing by the student council for a bit," explained Kira.

Not one could argue with that so they chatted among themselves for a while. All of a sudden, something caught Shiho's eyes, making her gasp inaudibly but obvious enough for the others to notice. They followed her gaze and the sight had them catching their breath as well.

It was Athrun, approaching their table, with Meyrin.

The table fell into a silence at once as Athrun and Meyrin took their seats facing Miguel and Cagalli. Miguel actually could feel Cagalli cowering slightly beside him, so he put his arm around her protectively.

"Sorry I'm late, Meyrin's practice finished later than I thought," Athrun apologized as he smiled at his friends. "It's okay, right – I said before I'd invite her when we have the next gathering, after all."

Meyrin bowed her head shyly. "Sorry for joining so suddenly; Athrun insists so…"

"It's okay," Lacus said warmly, turning to the red-haired girl with a smile. "We are all delighted to have you with us today, Meyrin-san."

"Oh, please, just 'Meyrin' is fine," Meyrin hastily replied. "Thanks, Lacus-san."

Lacus smiled some more at the abashed girl. "Then, just 'Lacus' will be fine, too, Meyrin."

"Meyrin, what club are you in?" Miriallia joined the conversation.

"Ah, I'm…"

"She's in our Cheerleading Club," interjected Shiho as she flashes her rare smile at Meyrin. "One of our centre members, though she's in the other cheerleading team."

Meyrin blushed harder at the compliment. "Well, Shiho-san is definitely better, though."

"You should stop with the '-san' thingy, Meyrin. We are all friends here so let's call each other with just their name," Dearka suggested lightly, followed by nods of approval from the others.

"Then, you all should stop with those 'Ayman-senpai's and start calling me 'Miguel', too," Miguel piped in. He had been meaning to tell them that for quite some times now. It was okay for the younger members of the basketball team he was captaining to call him 'senpai', but he did not need that kind of formalities from the closest friends of his own girlfriend. In fact, he was glad that Cagalli had taken to call him just by his name so casually since day 1.

Dearka, for one, looked a little bit taken aback at Miguel's request. "Well, you _are_ a senior…"

"Yeah, so you are an old man to the rest of us so just suck it up, _Ayman-senpai_," Cagalli teased, making faces at the said senior. It earned her a gentle knock on her head from Miguel.

Their friends laughed at the antics. Cagalli and Miguel's chemistry were not foreign to them but it never got boring at all. Nevertheless, a pair of emeralds hid the pain as the owner laughed along while a pair of onyx shadowed the confusion as the owner joined in the laughter.

"Well,well, let's get some food now, shall we?"

* * *

"Auel, hey, Auel!"

A guy with light blue hair woke with a start. He turned to the friend who had been nudging his side, annoyed.

"What, Sting?" he asked offhandedly as he reached for his drink.

The green-haired boy who had been sitting next to Auel on the bar table rolled his eyes. "If you keep staring, she'll notice, you know. Or worse, the dude beside her will."

Auel lowered his gaze, knowing the truth in Sting's warning. He knew it was wrong to stare on the first place, especially at a girl who was as much his as the sun. Not to mention the boy who was sitting beside her – the school heartthrob who could own any girl he possibly wanted.

He was exactly at where he should be, gazing at his dream girl from afar while doing his best not to get noticed.

Sting sighed. "She's your desk mate, right? I thought you two got along just well."

"Yeah, desk mate alright," Auel answered with a sigh as well. "We don't talk much now – she's busy with the student council. Well, more like, why bother talking to me at all when she could talk the council thingy with the love of her life, huh?"

"You should at least make a move, you know. At least you won't have any regret."

"A move? How could I?" Auel scoffed, his sky blue eyes dimmed as his lips formed a downcast smile. "My rival is Athrun Zala, you know."

* * *

Meyrin did not like Cagalli.

She did not like how Cagalli's smile looked like sunshine to the people around her. She did not like how easily people laughed at whatever Cagalli was doing. She did not like how Miguel aimlessly fiddled with Cagalli's fingers. She did not like how Cagalli casually leaned towards Miguel. She did not like how Cagalli had been ignoring her presence, unlike the others who welcomed her quite warmly.

And she did not like the fact that Athrun had been glancing at Cagalli regularly, hiding a smile even though he was obviously bothered by the public display of affection by the blonde couple.

"Seriously, you guys are going to hang out at the library after this?" she heard Kira saying, awe laced in his tone. "Kudos to you, Miguel, for showing her the library for the first time."

"I HAVE BEEN INTO THE LIBRARY, THANK YOU," Cagalli replied vehemently, glaring at her twin brother, earning herself some more laughter. "Well, what's the use of a smart boyfriend if you cannot get some free tutoring, right?"

Miguel made a face. "So I am being used, huh? I see."

"Considered yourself lucky, won't you?" Cagalli stuck out her tongue playfully at her boyfriend.

Meyrin could feel Athrun tensing beside her, even though he looks as calm as ever. And without any warning, she felt her tongue rolled on its own.

"You know, I have been thinking – Cagalli moves on real fast, doesn't her?"

It seemed that time had stopped for a while. Athrun stopped swirling his barely eaten pasta with his fork, Yzak's glass stopped in midair, Dearka missed the meatball he had been trying to catch with his chopstick – all eyes turned towards a certain red-haired girl.

Cagalli's amber eyes left Miguel's and shifted to Meyrin's onyx ones; warmth in them all gone, leaving unusual coldness.

"I wonder how does it concern you at all, Meyrin?"

Meyrin looked taken aback; Cagalli actually seemed unabashed at the sudden statement even though it left the others speechless. In fact, she was the one who got intimidated by the aura produced by the blonde to the extent that her body backed away unconsciously.

"Well…" Meyrin casted her gaze downward, feeling that there was no one she could look directly at during the moment. "You were dating Athrun just a while ago and now…"

At that, Cagalli pulled herself together, her small fists clenched and trembling, as her eyes glinted at the red-haired girl in front of her. When she spoke, her voice boomed clearly and menacingly, but not loud enough for the next table to hear.

"For all I know, it's an ill wind for you guys, right – me breaking up with Athrun. So you expect me to what, mourn for few months or something? So what if I go out with another guy right after we broke up? At least _I _am dating someone who actually loves me now, and where are _you_? Or rather, should I give you a lesson or two on how to move on?"

"W-What…" If Meryin could blush harder, she just did; her face was just as red as her ponytailed hair. She sank lower into her seat, thinking of what she would not give to disappear from the scene. Sure she was one of Athrun's prominent fan girl, but no one had ever pointed the fact out before – that she had no progress at all in making Athrun hers after all this while. "I-I never…"

"'_Don't you dare to take Athrun away from me'_ – that was you, right, who told me that on my first day, just because I got to sit beside Athrun? I remember, Meyrin." Cagalli finished up with a blow, giving Meyrin one last glare before she returned to her katsudon.

Athrun looked at the blonde like he had not ever seen her before. Sure, Cagalli was capable enough to shoot her mouth off to get herself out or into trouble at times but he had yet to witness such intensity. Meyrin had turned into a jelly beside him and he utterly had no idea what to do. For once, he had no control at all at the situation – much less expected from the others who had been just as dumbfounded as him.

The group resumed their meals in silence; in Athrun's case – his pasta-swirling. They spared Cagalli and Meyrin a glance in every few minutes, expecting an aftermath burst. But Cagalli was relishing her katsudon as if it was the last katsudon in the world and stealing Miguel's bits of black pepper steak from time to time while Meyrin was clutching at her bowl of salad, putting the pieces of tomatoes and cabbages into her mouth with such determination like it was the only thing she would rather do in the world.

"I'm done," Cagalli broke the silence as she put down her katsudon bowl with more force than necessary. "Can we go now, Miguel? I need to swing by the toilet first."

Miguel jabbed his last piece of steak. "Why don't you go first, Missy? I'll come for a bit. Just leave your things here."

Cagalli had already stood up. She nodded, before looking at her brother. "Okay, then. Catch you guys later. Kira, I'll be home around four or so."

Kira drew a smile for her, nodding. "Alright, take care, sis."

When Cagalli was already more than a foot away from them, Miguel set down his cutlery, reaching for his drink before rummaging Cagalli's bag for some random packet of tissue. He stood up and gathered their things wordlessly, his every movement watched by the others. When he was done, he turned to the table, addressing no one in particular with his unreadable face.

"I apologize for her rudeness. But I don't think she is in the wrong side at all. No one has the right to tell her of what to do," he said quite calmly.

Yzak smirked but not out of disagreement. "You'll end up spoiling her, you know."

Miguel smiled at the remark. "It's okay – I'll make sure she at least won't poke her nose into other people's business."

The others hid their smirk as Meyrin turned scarlet again – all except Athrun who was looking at Miguel with what looked pretty much like contempt. For a moment, his emeralds met Miguel's ambers as the senior's smile faded.

"And I personally think it's better to be able to move on is better than blatantly ogling at someone else's girlfriend, anyway," Miguel said coolly before leaving the table, raising a hand in goodbye as he left the juniors gasping at the side of him that they had just discovered.

* * *

"That guy…" Dearka said in disbelief after a few minutes of silence. "He's not Cagalli's boyfriend for nothing, huh?"

Yzak shook his head, small smile played on his lips as he found it amusing. "Can't think of anyone better for the job, really."

"_Yzak!_" Shiho warned him but the damaged was done. All eyes turned to a certain blue-haired boy.

Athrun was looking murderous; he had been so since Miguel dropped the bomb but Yzak's words had just fueled it some more. For once, the silver-haired archer looked regretful at his choice of word – Athrun, after all, had just done him a tremendously big favour.

"Are you done? We need to get going now, I suppose," said Athrun to the timidly cowering Meyrin. The girl nodded at once, regardless some leftover of her salad; it was nothing compared to Athrun's barely touched pasta anyway.

Lacus frowned at her ex-fiancé as he stood up with Meyrin. "But you've barely eaten, Athun…"

Athrun spared her a complimentary smile that did not reach his eyes. "I'm not that hungry, Lacus. I'll make it up with some heavy dinner, okay? Come, Meyrin. See you guys later."

* * *

"Athrun sure has it hard, right, Kira?" Lacus asked on their way home, her eyebrow furrowed. "I'm really concerned if he's eating properly - he's obviously losing some weight already."

Kira nodded silently, his mind apparently on something else other than Athrun's eating habit. The fact did not go unnoticed by Lacus, who was looking at his expression.

"What are you thinking, Kira?" she asked directly; Lacus never assumed.

"Just…what Miguel-senpai had said earlier," Kira answered slowly.

The answer brought a frown on Lacus's pretty face, which got Kira's attention.

"I think it is unfair for Athrun to be told that," she said finally, choosing her words nicely as a Lacus Clyne would. "He loves Cagalli, of course he cannot help but to stare at her sometimes."

"But even I wouldn't want someone to stare at you either," her boyfriend rebutted gently as he glanced fondly at her. "Athrun does it so obviously – I can understand why Miguel-senpai is pissed off."

Lacus continued to frown, still disagreeing with Kira. Athrun already had enough in his plate; she did not think he deserved to be told off by Miguel as well. Lacus could clearly see how much Athrun loved Cagalli, how much he wished Cagalli was his instead of Miguel – wasn't that bad enough, a punishment enough for him? Miguel also had been rude to Athrun, though everyone else thought it was okay because Miguel was a senior and he had the every right to speak out.

"But Athrun could not help it, right? He _loves_ Cagalli…"she said adamantly.

Kira gritted his teeth unconsciously. "Maybe he does, but he got some funny ways showing it from the start. I don't like that about him."

"You never like Athrun dating Cagalli on the first place, though," Lacus mused away. She said it naturally in her gentle voice but the warmth was unmistakably gone.

Her brown-haired boyfriend sighed. "Maybe you're right."

* * *

"Are you sure about this, Lenore?" Via Hibiki asked for the umpteenth time, her brows furrowed so deep in concern. "This is too sudden, don't you think?"

Lenore Zala stared blankly at the photos spread on the dinner table. Her beautiful emerald eyes had lost their shine altogether, along with her soothing smile that radiated her never aging face. Her pale hand gripped her cell phone so tightly like it would ever fall.

"It's for the best, Via," she said slowly, at last.

Via frowned some more, still not convinced. "What about Athrun? It'll be hard on him for sure. Think again, Lenore, please. For Athrun."

"He will understand. He will be okay. He's my son, after all," replied Lenore determinedly as if convincing herself. "It's for the best, Via."

**Okay, even though it is obvious, just to remind – Via Hibiki is Kira and Cagalli's mother and Lenore Zala is Athrun's mother. I'm sorry if the chapter is shorter and has even less AsuCaga moment than the previous one but please bear with me for these few chapters I hope it is to your liking, anyway and I hope it's good enough to earn some reviews? Hee. I'll go write the next chapter so off I go!**

**p.s. I got some requests for me to update my abandoned multi-chapter What's With Love. To be honest, I feel like discontinuing that story because I lost the plot already and it is way messed up on the first place. So for now, the status will be discontinued until I feel like rewriting the whole thing. I'm really sorry for that. On side not, the story was supposed to be inspired from the Indonesian movie Ada Apa Dengan Cinta, which is my all-time favourite movie (like, Rangga is so damn cool! XD) so if any Indonesian reader can recommend me some other similar movies, I'd appreciate it very much XD**

**p.s.s. I wrote a canon AsuCaga oneshot the other day so if you'd check it out, it'll make me happy =)**

**-Mayu**


	7. Chapitre VII : The Invisible End

**Yes, it's an update – not a discontinuing notice; sorry to disappoint you guys lol Let's just read the chapter.**

**Warning : This is un-beta-ed. Sorry in advance! **

**Chapter 7 **

"Hey, sorry you guys have to work overtime today."

The members of student council looked up from their work to see the president of the council walking into the room in his casual clothes. The president of the student council was Rusty Mackenzie – a fairly quiet third year with dark orange hair. He did not stand out much among the students but his capability to lead was recognized by both students and teachers alike.

The student council did not usually conduct meetings during weekends since they already worked long hours during weekdays. But today was an exception since there were so many things to do for the upcoming school festival. It was also the time for the third year members to focus on their exams so most of the works were entrusted to the second year members. Despite that, the senior members helped as much as possible since they knew the works could be overwhelming for the new members.

For the school festival, each club was required to do an activity on the first day while each class had to do one on the second day. The third day was dedicated for the closing ceremony and the after party. It was scheduled for next month but the preparation had started to make the council members go crazy. Unlike the other students who just had to run their club and class activities, the council members had to make sure every activities run smoothly – and they were not even exempted from their own activities.

"Rusty, look at this proposal," said a third year member, chuckling as he handed the said proposal to the president. "It's from the basketball club."

Athrun perked up at the mention of the club in which Miguel was the president. There was silence for a few moments as Rusty studied the proposal before he broke out into a rare laugh.

"Seriously, only Miguel can come up with something like this – that guy, I have to have a word with him," said Rusty amidst his laughter.

"What's the proposal?" asked a second year member from her desk across the room. Athrun silently thanked her for asking.

"1-on-1 matches with the members. Whoever wins get to challenge the president-cum-captain, that's Miguel alright. And the prize is…" At that Rusty broke into a laughing fit again, unable to finish his sentence.

"A date with Cagalli Yula Attha!" the third year member who showed Rusty the proposal helped him to finish the explanation.

The whole room roared in laughter but Athrun froze on his seat. Everything about Cagalli and Miguel were still a sore topic for him – thanks to Miguel's snarky remark that hit him right on his face. He could feel Meyrin's eyes on him but he did not feel like reacting to her so he let her be.

The rest of the members were finally coming round after their fit of laughter. Some of them were still chuckling while the other shook their head at the ridiculousness of the proposal.

"That's his girlfriend, right? The one he called Missy," someone asked behind his desk.

"Yeah, the second year. Seriously, who'd challenge Miguel in 1-on-1 just to get a date with her? Is she popular or what?" Another piped in.

"She seems fun to be with, though." A classmate of Miguel gave her opinion. "Maybe someone would do it just to spite Miguel. You know how protective he is to that girl."

"Is she any good on dates, Athrun?" Clotho Buer, a second-year but from a different class asked suddenly, making Athrun jumped out his skin. "She's your ex, right?"

Athrun did his best to let out a nonchalant chuckle as he became the centre of attention. "Oh, she's good, indeed. I would like to try that game, only if I don't know better."

"What do you mean?" asked Rusty, curious.

"There's no way I can beat Miguel when it comes about Cagalli."

* * *

By the time the clock stroke 3.30 in the evening, most of the student council members had left the room with their own workload brought home. No one really wanted to stay cooped in the room for long during weekends, anyway. That left Athrun and Meyrin, the certified workaholics of the council, finally getting round to gather their work and tidy up their tables before going home.

"Done, Meyrin?" Athrun asked as he slung his bag over his shoulder. He turned to Meyrin who was staring resolutely at her spick and span table. The girl seemed to be so into her thought that she did not hear him. Athrun approached her closer. "Rin? You're okay?"

When Meyrin turned around to face him, Athrun saw a determination he had never witnessed in her onyx eyes. Her face was set into a resolve and somehow Athrun was taken aback by the change. He had only knows two sides of Meyrin; one as the docile fan girl of his, another as the hardworking colleague of the student council – and the Meryin he was looking at right now belonged to neither of them.

"Athrun, there's something I want to tell you – will you please hear me out?" she asked slowly, looking directly into Athrun's eyes for the first time ever.

Athrun nodded. "What is it?"

Meyrin's small hands curled into a first as she took a deep breath.

_You've been waiting for so long; you can do this, Meyrin._

"I love you, Athrun. Always, since we first met. I never have the courage to confess, though – and I wish I did. It pains me to see you being hurt by those who just won't appreciate you, Athrun. If-If it's me, I'm sure I can take care of you; I'll make you happy, I'll never leave you so… would you give me the chance?"

Athrun could see this coming. He knew it would happen sooner or later. He was perfectly prepared for it; more than any other confession he had been receiving since his break-up with Cagalli. Yet, he still wavered – which was a surprise since he could respond to those other confession in a blink. For a moment he felt like giving her a chance she asking for and he was so close to voicing it but a flash of Meer- a crying, heartbroken Meer – stopped him.

"_Then we should have never going out on the first place, Athrun! Maybe I'm all this but how could you do this to me?!"_

Athrun gritted his teeth unconsciously. No way would he let that happen again.

"Thank you, Meyrin," he said gently, smiling at her with his eyes. "But I'm sorry."

* * *

It was already dark when Athrun reached his house. His original plan for the day was to get home as fast as he could and get some rest or spend some time with his mother; both things he had not done much nowadays thanks to the work load from the student council. But the incident during the lunch and Meyrin's confession had messed up his mind even more than it already was and he did not feel like coming home just then. So he took refuge at the local coffee shop and drowned a couple cups of black coffee (much to the waitress' surprise) while watching the passerby to prevent himself from thinking too much. His stomach grumbled but he did not feel like eating. His appetite had been decreasing significantly recently that it already felt normal to skip his meals. All he consumed nowadays was coffee and thanks to the habit, he had problems on sleeping as well.

As he went through the automatic gate, Athrun was surprised to see a familiar blond figure sitting on the swing in his mother's garden as if waiting for some. His presence startled the girl and she immediately stood up. Athrun approached her, bewildered. What had brought her here, in this hour? She had not set a foot in his house after the first time, which was months ago. While making his way towards her, Athrun eyed the black limousine parked at the foyer; their chauffeur that was rarely seen in the house since both him and his mother preferred to drive themselves.

"Cagalli? What are you doing here?" he asked right away once he reached her.

Cagalli looked at him; her expression grave. In fact, she looked so troubled that it automatically rendered Athrun anxious as well.

"I'm-I'm with Kira, and Mum," she explained slowly. "It's your mother…"

"What happened to mom?" Athrun cut her off, perplexed. "She's alright, isn't she?"

The girl held his arm as if to calm him down, though her act of casting her sight down did nothing to that effect. "She's fine. It's just…she found out – Athrun, she found out about your father having another woman."

"THAT BASTARD!" Athrun stormed off, making his way into the house – almost running. Cagalli chased after him.

"He's not here, Athrun!" said Cagalli, panting as she managed to stop Athrun just before he reached the door. "Athrun, please, calm down. Your mother is waiting for you; she's coping this with her own way and there's something she wants to tell you so keep your calm, please? For her?"

Athrun looked at her and then took a deep breath. His father's infidelity was not actually a surprise to him – he had found him with his suspicious secretary before. He had planned to confront his father but he had yet found some time to do so. All this time he was only hoping that the matter would not reach to his mother no matter what before he could do something about it. It seemed like he was too late.

* * *

"Mom," Athrun approached her mother at the dining table, politely acknowledging the presence of Kira and the twins' mother

Lenore looks up to her only son – her pride and joy – drawing the best smile she could manage on her face. Athrun looks nothing but devastated and all this while she wished of nothing but a smile on his face. She hates to be the one who puts the sad face on him, no matter how inevitable. "Athrun…"

Athrun took a seat next to her and reached for her hands; they are just as warm and comforting like they have always been, despite the situation. "How…how did you find out?"

"There are rumours, you see," says Lenore slowly, her forced smile came slipping by. She thought she has been prepared for this but this is still unbearably hard. "-About Patrick being overly attached to his secretary, especially in those parties I used to accompany him to. I made friends in these parties, you know, so these friends, bless them, enquire me about it out of concern. I tries asking Patrick through phone calls but he diverted from the topic more often than not and he wouldn't let me come to the office. So I asked a favour from people I trust to look into the matter. These came sometime within the week."

Athrun followed his mother's gaze to the numerous photos spread on the table; of his father with a young woman half his age in various occasions. It is indeed the woman he had seen his father with in the hospital when he accompanied Cagalli to visit her then-fiancé before; his fingers curled into a fist under his conscience. His father had avoided any discussion then but he should have pursued it more, he should've confronted him – but he didn't and now cat's out of bag. His eyes caught the sight of luggage at the foot of the stairs.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Lenore starts before Athrun could say anything. "I could see you are already preoccupied by your own problems. I want to settle this by myself without you involved, so I made this decision."

"What are you planning to do, mom?" asks Athrun as he prepares himself for the answer; whatever it is, he knows it wouldn't do him any favours.

Lenore sighs decidedly, her brilliant emerald eyes set. "I'm returning to PLANTS, to December. I already gave Patrick a call – if he wishes to settle things with me, he'd have to go to December."

"If he doesn't?" Athrun pales at the worst possibility.

His mother calms him down with a smile and a squeeze on his hand. "Oh he will. That's just how Patrick is; he doesn't ignore problems."

"But does it have to be in December?" he tried to appeal to his mother. How could he let her go through this alone at a place so far away? December was the place where they had lived before they came to Heliopolis; Athrun himself was born in December but after all the years staying in Heliopolis, December was a unfamiliar place to him and he couldn't see how it could help his mother. "Can't you do it here?"

Lenore sighs again; Via glanced meaningfully at Kira and the two of them rose from their seat.

"We'll help overseeing the luggage," Via says with a pat on Lenore's shoulder.

"Thanks, Via."

When the two left them alone, Lenore stared deep into those identical eyes of hers. "Athrun, I'm so sorry I have to leave, but this might take you some time and I hate to see you troubled by it. Patrick also agrees to it and December may do well in calming me down; it's my hometown, after all."

_And it's where Patrick and I met for the first time, too,_ Lenore added in her thought.

"Will you be alright, all by yourself?" Athrun voiced out his main concern. He understands his mother's reason so far, but how could he let her be all in her own at times like this? Even if he got problems of his own, if possible he would want to be of help, even if it is just being with her.

"I won't be alone," Lenore convinced him, her smile assuring. "I will be with my sister, Caridad. So it's alright. You, on the hand – oh, I hate to leave you alone, I'm _so _sorry, Athrun…"

It just breaks Athrun's heart to see a tear came rolling down Lenore's cheek. He gripped her hand tighter. "Mom…"

Lenore wiped away the tear with her free hand. "Athrun, you are strong – you've always been – and you have many good friends around you; that's why I can make this selfish decision…"

"Mom," Athrun cuts her off. "I don't think it's selfish at all. It's okay; I'll be alright."

"You'll be alright, yes," Lenore nodded as if trying to convince herself. "I'm sure you can take care of yourself, Athrun. But remember, you have people who love you around; it's okay to depend on them. Don't try to take it all by yourself. Can you promise me that?"

It was an undeniable fact that his mother was the one who knew him the best, after all. Athrun never got any less attention than what he deserved from his parents yet he grew up learning to handle everything by himself, almost to the point of closing him off other people that it worried Lenore. Athrun acknowledged that as his weakness, though he never really did anything to help it but if it would make his mother happy, then he supposed he could at least try.

"I promise, mom," he said firmly. "But you have to promise me – that you will put your happiness above everything when you make any decision about this matter. You don't have to worry about me; because what makes you happy _will_ make me happy for sure. Please, mom."

Another drop of tear fell as Lenore wondered if she deserved such good of a son. She smiled her sweetest smile. "I promise, Athrun."

* * *

"Then, I'll be going now," said Lenore with the chauffeur snapped the door shut, ready to drive. The entire luggage was already safe in the trunk so she's only clutching her favourite purse.

Via stood beside her, facing her own children. "I'll accompany her for a bit so take care of your dinner, kids."

Kira nodded at his mother and stepped forward as he smiled gently at Lenore before giving her a brief hug. "Safe flight and good luck for everything, Lenore-san."

Lenore nodded, returning the smile and the hug. "Thank you, Kira-kun. I'm counting on you to keep tabs on Athrun."

Then, Cagalli had her turn. Her hug was a tad longer, more emotional – they were not that close but Lenore had treated her well enough for Cagalli to take her as one of the kindest people she had ever met and it was just sad that something like this had to happened to the likes of Lenore.

"I hope everything will turn out fine, Lenore-san," Cagalli wished, right from the bottom of her heart.

"Thank you, Cagalli-chan," thanked Lenore. As they parted from the hug, Lenore took a second to give the girl a meaningful stare. "Please take care of Athrun for me."

It brought a guilty twinge in Cagalli's chest but she brushed it off with a smile, and at that time, Athrun had reached for his mother, pulling her into a deep hug for the last time.

"I'll be going now, Athrun," said Lenore, unable to stop her tears from flowing anymore. It would only be a temporary separation but it is the first time she had to leave Athrun for anything so it was hitting both of them hard.

"Please take care, mom," Athrun chocked back his own tears; he would probably just cry if Via, Kira and Cagalli were not present. "I love you."

Lenore smiled in her tears, face buried in Athrun's broad shoulder; when did her baby grow up? "I love you, too, Athrun; more than you can imagine."

"Athrun," says Kira as the three walked back into the now empty house. "Are you alright?"

Athrun flashed him a smile but didn't answer as he sank his bottom into the couch in the living room. He leaned back and closed his eyes. Kira and Cagalli looked at each other worriedly; both noticing the weariness apparent on Athrun's close to perfect feature. The blonde twin eventually took a seat next to Athrun on the three-seat sofa while the brunette took the adjacent single seat in silence. None of them could find any word to say, after all.

Athrun opened his eyes when he felt a hand taking taking his into it and realized that it's Cagalli. He smiled almost involuntarily. "What are you making that face for, Cagalli?"

"I'm just mirroring you," replied Cagalli, only half teasingly.

"I'm sure I don't look like that," Athrun was certain that he didn't look like he'd cry like Cagalli did right now but he felt like wanting to give her a hug all the same – though it was probably for his benefit instead of hers. In fact, he was just about to take her small frame into his arms when his eyes met Kira's judging ones accidentally, halting his actions.

"I just want to sleep," he lied through his teeth; as if he could sleep after all his intake of caffeine on the day. "This whole thing is tiring me out."

Cagalli turned to look at Kira, sharing an anxious look before turning back to Athrun concernedly. "You should at least have some dinner first. Why don't we all go out for some pizza or something?"

Pizza was the last thing that crossed Athrun's mind at the moment so he didn't quite know how to decline the offer properly. Luckily Kira shared his sentiment.

"I don't think he's up for that, sis," said the brunette kindly. He took a look at Athrun's apprehensive face and made a decision quickly. "Why don't you go home and let me stay with Athrun for a while? I'll make sure he'll have his dinner."

Cagalli made a face. "Are you throwing me out? This is not even your house."

"I want you to go home as well," Athrun interjected, much to Cagalli's surprise. Her face must have fallen into a genuine affronted expression since the blue-haired boy immediately mended his mistake. "I mean, it's already late and all. Not that I don't want you here or anything."

"Yeah, right," Cagalli rolled her eyes but decided not to take the matter further. She noticed Athrun's discomfort around her; perhaps her presence was not even helping him to ease his mind at the least. "Fine, then. I'll go back first, then. Are you sleeping over, Kira?"

Kira looked at Athrun and did the same when Athrun shook his head. "I'll be home after dinner – have to make sure this kid is eating."

Cagalli nodded in satisfaction, grinned briefly at Kira's reference of Athrun as a kid. She stood up from her seat and Athrun followed suit.

"You know I'm not throwing you out right?" he confirmed out of concern, just in case she actually had taken offence.

But the girl just laughed it off. "I know, Athrun – what are you taking me of. Take care, alright? Have an early night. You can call me if you can't sleep, though. I'll sing you a lullaby."

He knew Cagalli was just joking around to make the air lighter but Athrun swore not to succumb to the temptation to do exactly that. He managed a smirk. "Thanks. Take care on your way home, alright?"

* * *

About half an hour later, Athrun went down to the kitchen as he dried his hair with a towel. He stepped in just in time to see Kira washing the last cooking utensil he had been using. Glancing at the table, he found piles of club sandwiches a jar of orange juices with two glasses arranged beside it. The blue-haired guy made a face at the sheepishly smiling Kira.

"Are we going to a picnic or something?" Athrun asked sarcastically while washing his hands.

Kira took a seat and began pouring the juice into the glasses for both of them. "Well, you did promise Lacus a heavy dinner…"

"Yeah, but I didn't promise her to eat for 10," his best friend rebutted while taking a seat.

Kira simply chuckled as he took a piece of the sandwich. Athrun had requested nothing too heavy so he ruled out rice and noodles. While rummaging the kitchen, he found a loaf of whole grain bread and some slices of ham in the fridges so he thought simple club sandwiches would do. Too bad he could not find any bacon but he put two layers hams instead. The loaf of bread almost reached its expiry date anyway so he used all of it; thus Athrun's complaint.

"Been taking private cooking lessons from Lacus, I see?" Athrun said smilingly after taking his first bite.

"You could tell?" Kira blushed a little for his little secret was out. He and Lacus had not been into dates much but they preferred to spend their times together in each other presence all the same. Cooking had always been Lacus' passion aside from singing so they had been cooking together a lot; and it had done Kira good without saying.

Athrun chuckled a little. "These used to be in my lunch boxes, after all."

Kira caught a glance of reminiscing look on Athrun's face and his smile faltered. It was hard to forget that Lacus used to be Athrun's fiancée. Athrun had seemed to put it behind him already but Lacus' constant nagging of Athrun's well-being could be quite upsetting sometimes. He knew Lacus meant well and all but he could get insecure sometimes – something he would rather avoid since he wanted to trust Lacus with all he got and Athrun was his best friend, after all.

"Oh, yes, of course," he said slowly. "Well, someone has to cook when Mom's away from work, anyway and I prefer it not to be Cagalli."

The mere name put a bitter smile on Athrun's face. "Then, what about her dinner for tonight? Maybe you should pack some of these and bring them home for her."

Kira shook his head, smiling fondly at the thought of his sister. "No, she can cook. It's just that our taste don't match. I am not that fond of chilies and peppers like she is."

Athrun laughed at the thought of Cagalli stuffing Kira with her tongue-burning dishes. He had an impression that Cagalli could not cook, though and it had just proved that he did not know Cagalli that well, after all, despite their stint as a couple before.

"She…didn't mention anything about what happened during lunch," he mused, thinking about around an hour back.

"You don't expect her to bring that up when she's all worried about you coping with the thing with your parents, do you?" Kira replied, reaching for his second piece of sandwich while eyeing Athrun's first and unfinished one. "Eat up, Athrun or I'm going to take offence."

Athrun brought the sandwich to his mouth and took another bite. He thought over Kira's rhetoric question as he chewed. Sure he could see how worried Cagalli was. It just made him wonder why she was that concerned on the first place. After the deal ended, they pretty much played friends roles with each other but it was very civil. He had not even worn the sweater Cagalli had got him for the exchange of the basketball shoes.

"That's so nice of her for caring – but I don't need to be told off twice."

It sounded like Athrun was talking to himself more than anything but it was nevertheless caught by Kira's keen ears. He grimaced as he remembered the conversation he had with Lacus on their way home earlier. His opinion would just hurt Athrun so he decided not to comment anything. Both of them ate in silence for a while.

"You know…" Athrun broke the silence as he finally took his second piece of sandwich. "Meyrin confessed to me earlier."

Kira, who was drinking at the moment, looked up from his glass, surprised. "Seriously? So you two are official now?"

Athrun laughed bitterly. "I wish."

The simple answer caught Kira off guard. He had expected only two answers; "Yes, we are going out now" and "No, of course not, what the hell are you thinking?" It was hard to pick out Athrun's feeling about Meyrin, even for Kira as his best friend. But he totally had not expected the answer Athrun had just sprouted; that he rejected Meyrin but he wish he didn't. Kira looked at the boy in front of him, asking explanation with his eyes.

"I just don't love her, Kira," sighed Athrun exasperatedly; grimacing like it was his fault. "I like her a lot; I am all but in love with her. I cannot accept her the way I am right now; I don't want her to be another Meer."

"Another mess, you mean?" Kira asked for confirmation. Meer Campbell was one of Athrun's most infamous fan girls, which Athrun dated for a few weeks after the break-up of his engagement of Lacus. The whole affair, if to be summed in a word, was a mess and Athrun rarely mentioned about her anymore.

"Another girl that I hurt, I mean," Athrun corrected firmly.

Again, Kira was surprised and confused, even – Athrun was singing an entirely different tune now. "Are we talking about the same Meer? Because I don't remember you being that fond of her before."

Athrun sighed again, her brows still furrowed. "I have been thinking a lot about it, Kira. Meer, despite everything, had loved me. She loved me enough to change her appearance, loved me enough to try to please me in her own ways, and loved me enough to be that possessive of me." Here Athrun let out a harsh laugh. "She loved me enough to not going out with someone else the next day after, too. If I were to accept Meyrin now, it will be the same case and I care enough for Meyrin that I don't want it happen to her."

"You could try to love her, you know," suggested Kira.

"I've tried enough, hell I've tried, Kira – what do you think am I doing all this while?" Athrun responded almost heatedly. "It should have been easy; with all those hours we spend together, and her being all nice and everything and I don't even have to wonder if she loves me because she's obviously in love with me from day one."

"Then, what's wrong with her?" Kira asked.

"She's just not the one," replied Athrun as if it was obvious. "We have a lot of things in common and it's comfortable to be with her but she can go out with all boys she likes and I wouldn't give a damn."

Kira stared at him for a while. When he spoke, there was a note of accusation in his voice. "She's not Cagalli, you mean."

Athrun went silent. Eyes averted, he reached for another piece of sandwich unwillingly just for the sake of doing something. Kira sighed – he had known Athrun well enough to understand the silence. He had let him and Cagalli be after Athrun told him to consider the case closed but from his observation these few months he could tell that Athrun had not really put the lid on the matter, even without Lacus' continuous pestering.

When the silence began to choke, Kira cleared his throat and looked directly at his childhood best friend. "Athrun, isn't it about time you let her go?"

"I let her go alright, didn't I?" Athrun replied scornfully, his voice a little croaked. He gulped down the orange juice, draining half of the glass.

"I mean, you should move on now, don't you think?"

Athrun considered the question for a moment and then smirked in disdain at Kira. "So I take it Captain got your stamp of approval already?"

Kira looked guiltily affronted at Athrun's tone of speaking but remained calm all the same. "He makes her happy, Athrun."

"And I failed in just that, right?"

"Athrun…"Kira ruffled his hair, searching for the right words for Athrun had looked murderous again. "After all these years separated, I just want to see her smile – I couldn't care less about the one bringing those smiles."

Kira sounded so sincere that Athrun's expression softened. He forgot that Kira was not only his best friend but also Cagalli's brother; of course he was thinking about Cagalli's happiness above all. Cagalli's happiness… Athrun smiled resentfully; it was indeed something he had not managed to achieve.

"If I could be given just one more chance, Kira, maybe I'll do it right this time."

**I don't think I'm doing myself justice in this chapter but I decide that I wouldn't be able to do any better no matter how long I keep this so I just write whatever I manage to and update anyway. I know I should be aiming for shorter chapters but this chapter won't make sense if I cut any of them, don't you think? I can't even split it into two because it kinda ruins the plot then /sighs Let's hope I can do a better chapter next – though I think there aren't many people still following this story; I want to finish what I started, anyway. So yea, I'll keep updating even though it's taking me years so if you could be kind enough to spare a review or two to keep me going? But, well, just to make it clear (as if it isn't obvious already), I got another story to priorities and I got college that's keeping me from all the free time, so the updates will be really random /nervous laugh**

**To those who's still reading, and those who have reviewed for the previous chapter(s) – I can't thank you enough =)**

**p.s. If you haven't, check up my new story ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED, it's AxC and AU and on-going. :D **

**-Asuka Mayu **


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